Author of the article - and analyzed the likely impact of Section 174 in detail a year back [1], in Jan 2024, when it became clear that it was not being reversed like most assumed it would be.

I originally didn’t mention this because S174 impacts the US and US-HQ’d companies. In this data other countries like Germany, UK, France all see a similar drop. Also, S174 impact likely really started from early 2024, when companies impacted had to pay high taxes and realized the change is here to stay with no end in sight. Doesn’t explain the drop since 2022.

Updated the article to make this clear though. It was not in the original version - thanks for the note!

[1] https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/section-174/

There is mention of Section 174, last paragraph before the "Comparison with other industries" heading.

Wow I just googled this and it's the first time I'm hearing about it!