As such intangible assets become strategic factors in firms’ value creation, their role in the economy has become as important as that of tangible assets, accounting for up to 12% of GDP (Figure 2.1). In Finland, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States, investment in intangibles is now equal to or even superior to investment in tangibles such as machinery and equipment and structures. Over the past decade, investment in intangibles has grown as a share of GDP in many OECD countries while investment in tangibles has stayed the same or declined.