Where Does Apple Spend its Money? [InfoGraphic]

Although it has lost “the world’s most valuable company” title recently to Exxon, Apple is still the best place to work, as Tim Cook pointed out in his meeting with company employees right after announcing a record holiday quarter.

Now analysts and investors have a reason to worry: the infographic put together by the editors at Master’s in Business Administration Degree Guide shows Apple’s spending is increasing. The only question is where does the tech giant spend its money? On advertising, like Samsung?

Looking at the fiscal year 2012, we can see that Apple has $10.04 billion on selling, general and administrative costs, a significant increase compared to the previous fiscal year, when the above costs were only $7.799 billion.

What is more interesting, though, is that Apple is investing heavily in Research and Development. The data shows Apple has spent $7.04 billion on data centers in 2012 – a 94% increase compared to a year prior – and another $7.1 billion was budgeted for product tooling, manufacturing process equipment, corporate infrastructure and facilities, information services enhancements, software and hardware.

Source: A Bite Out of Apple

Another interesting finding is that Apple spends much less than other big companies on advertising and lobbying. The company spent just $500,000 on lobbying compared to Google’s $5 million.