Google has more AI patents than Microsoft, NVIDIA, and IBM
What's the story
Google has taken the lead in the race of AI-related patents, ahead of tech giants Samsung, Huawei, and Microsoft. As per data from US-based database management firm IFI Claims, Google has filed 1,837 AI-related patents worldwide. That's way ahead of Samsung's 1,706 and Huawei's 1,399 patents. The search engine giant has 50% more patents than Microsoft and nearly double that of IBM globally.
Domestic lead
Google's patent dominance extends to the US
In the US, Google remains the leader in AI patents with 880 applications. Microsoft follows with 701, while IBM is not far behind at 684. In terms of generative AI patents alone, Google leads the world with 563 patents. Although Microsoft was third in this category, Chinese companies/universities took six of the top 10 spots.
Research indicator
Patent filings reflect research interest, not innovation
It's worth noting that patent filings don't directly reflect the level of innovation but indicate the degree of research interest in a particular sector. The main areas covered by generative AI patents include computing arrangements based on biological models, handling natural language data, speech recognition, image or video recognition or understanding, and machine learning.
Patent rush
Companies are rushing to patent AI inventions
As funding in the AI sector grows, companies are rushing to patent inventions related to core technologies like image, speech, text, and video creation. NVIDIA leads in video and image patents, while Microsoft tops in text-related patents, according to the report from IFI Claims. Google is focusing its efforts on speech recognition technology. Despite patenting across all areas of generative AI, tech giants are focusing on one or two specific domains.
Next frontier
Agentic AI is the next frontier in tech
The report also emphasizes that agentic AI is the next frontier in the technology landscape. While the technology is still in its infancy, its autonomy potential has drawn many companies. Agentic AI patents make up 5% of all AI-related applications worldwide and 7% in the US. Google leads both globally and domestically, followed by NVIDIA.