Huawei tops list of AI intellectual property owners in China
- The AI Intellectual Property in China 2019 report ranks some 500 Chinese AI firms based on overall AI capabilities, innovation and technology maturity
- Huawei’s comprehensive set of AI products is key to its strategy, according to the report
Huawei Technologies is China’s most competitive intellectual property owner in artificial intelligence (AI), according to a report by media company Hurun Report and intellectual property platform WTOIP.com.
The AI Intellectual Property in China 2019 report ranked some 500 mainstream Chinese AI firms based on each company’s overall AI capabilities, innovation and the maturity of their technologies, Hurun and WTOIP.com said in a press release on Wednesday.
Shenzhen-based Huawei, which is also the world’s largest telecommunications equipment maker, scored the full 100 points.
Huawei’s comprehensive set of products, including AI chip and server designs as well as its all-in-one AI computing framework MindSpore, is key to its AI development strategy according to the report.
Internet giant Tencent was a close contender, coming in second with 99.7 points in the report, followed by internet search provider Baidu with 94.5 points.
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Tencent is one of the main champions of AI technology in China’s medical industry while Baidu is a key AI player in smart homes and smart driving, said the report.
E-commerce powerhouse Alibaba, leading Chinese surveillance camera maker Hikvision, voice-recognition developer iFlytek and state-owned power company State Grid also made it to the top 10.
Alibaba Group is the South China Morning Post’s parent company.
“The number of AI patent applications has risen rapidly in the past five years, and China is the world leader especially in the fields of vision, robotics and language,” said Hurun Report chairman and chief researcher Rupert Hoogewerf, also known by his Chinese name Hu Run.
Unlike many leading Chinese technology firms that primarily focus on software development, Huawei and Hikvision are also major chip designers.
Both were included in the US trade blacklist, officially called the Entity List, earlier this year. Their inclusion in the list effectively bars them from purchasing US goods, as the world’s two largest economies extend their trade competition into technology.
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