Listed companies in China saw robust growth in research and development (R&D) investment in 2018, according to financial data analyzer Wind.

A total of 1,178 listed companies disclosed their 2018 R&D information by Thursday, spending 384.7 billion yuan (about 57.2 billion U. S. dollars) last year, up 23.72 percent year on year.

About 81 percent of the companies invested more in R&D than in 2017, and 85 companies doubled their R&D expenditures.

Companies in oil exploration, infrastructure and electronics manufacturing led R&D spending, while investment in emerging industries like computers, semiconductors and biomedicine accounted for a relatively larger proportion of revenue.

Increases in R&D personnel became one of the main drivers for the substantial increase in R&D investment, with the number of R&D professionals in 728 listed companies taking up more than 10 percent of their total employees.