Apple is the World’s Top Acquirer of AI Companies, Says GlobalData

According to the latest research published by Global Data, Apple the top acquirer of AI companies in the world. With Apple on top, four FAAMG companies feature in the list of top five acquirers of AI companies. Ireland-based Accenture was the only non-US company to appear in the top five.

“Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook collectively undertook 60 acquisitions in the AI tech space during 2016–2020 while Apple led the race with 25 acquisitions,” said Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData.

The US is the leader in AI, and the dominance of US tech giants in the list of top acquirers also indicates that these companies have some defined AI objectives, the researchers added.

“Apple has gone on a shopping spree in efforts to catch up with Google (Google Assistant) and Amazon (Alexa). Siri was first on the market, but it consistently ranks below the two in terms of “smartness”, which is partly why Apple is far behind in smart speaker sales. Apple also want to make sure to keep its strong position within wearables. It is the dominant player in smartwatches.”

Apple has been ramping up its acquisition of AI companies, with several deals aimed at improving Siri or creating new features on its iPhones.