Four of the five largest AI acquirers between 2016 and 2020 are based in the United States. The quartet comprises Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook, with Apple leading the pack, according to GlobalData.
The only non-American company in the top five was Accenture of Ireland.
“Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook collectively bought 60 AI companies and startups between 2016 and 2020. Apple leads with 25 acquisitions,” said Aurodzhoti Bose, senior analyst for business fundamentals at GlobalData.
Niklas Nilsson, senior analyst for the thematic research group, added that the United States leads in AI. In his view, the dominance of U.S. tech giants in the list of top buyers also points to these companies having specific AI goals.
He suggested that Apple is buying AI developers to strengthen Siri and create new features on the iPhone. To improve Siri, the company acquired Inductiv (machine learning), Voysis (voice technologies) and PullString.
“Apple went on a shopping spree, trying to catch up with Google (Google Assistant) and Amazon (Alexa). Siri was the first on the market, but it consistently lags the other two in “intelligence.” This partly explains why Apple lags in smart speaker sales,” said Nelson.
Beyond acquisitions, tech giants have also been actively hiring in AI, collectively posting more than 14,000 AI-related vacancies in 2020.
In March, the U.S. National AI Security Commission released a report with recommendations on how the United States can maintain technological leadership.
A week later, the Chinese government presented a five-year plan to accelerate the development of advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence. In 2020, China also emerged as a leader in the number of AI-related scientific publications.
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