The World Intellectual Property Organization just dropped a patent landscape report that puts hard numbers on something the tech world already suspected: generative AI isn’t just growing fast, it’s growing at a pace that makes “fast” feel inadequate.
GenAI patent families surged from roughly 14,000 in 2023 to over 37,800 by 2025. That’s nearly triple the volume in just two years. The patent activity from 2024 and 2025 alone exceeds the entire preceding decade combined.
China is running away with it
Between 2014 and 2023, China racked up more than 38,000 GenAI inventions. The United States, for all its Silicon Valley swagger, managed roughly one-sixth of that number.
The top patent holders read like a who’s who of Chinese corporate and institutional power. SoftBank, Tencent, Ping An Insurance Group, Baidu, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences all sit near the top, with six of the ten largest GenAI patent owners being Chinese firms.
