The aim of the article is to analyze the state strategies for building the knowledge economy, determine the directions of transformation and group features of the developed countries and the most economically powerful developing countries. Attention is drawn to the modern world context of historical circumstances affecting the state strategies for the transition to the knowledge economy, the changes in patterns of economic growth and the new stage of globalization associated with the development and dissemination of knowledge. In this regard, there singled out a number of global megatrends covering scientific and technical activities, international trade in high-technology goods and knowledge-intensive services, international migration of labor, etc. There also noted the change in the paradigm of rivalry and the “architecture” of the global economic leadership. The indicators of scientific and technical activities in several countries are analyzed, which proves the preservation of asymmetry. The results of the analysis of the strategies for building the knowledge economy in a number of developed countries (the US, EU countries, Germany, France, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Israel) and developing countries (China, India, Malaysia, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico) are presented. Their participation in the world scientific progress and innovation process is characterized, as well as the main directions of transformations in terms of the transition to the knowledge economy (new industrialization, development of science and education, improvement of innovation systems, development of international scientific and technical cooperation, etc.). One of the factors of structural changes at all levels is macro innovations. Within the framework of the proposed concept, three types of such innovations are distinguished: scientific and paradigm, structural, and transformational. Their relationship with the foreign economic strategy of the state is established.