‘Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook took over 60 AI companies from 2016’

According to research firm GlobalData, Apple acquired more AI companies than Google, Microsoft and Facebook in the period 2016 to 2020. The American tech giants dominate the AI ​​acquisition market and together acquired more than sixty companies in the same period.

Between 2016 and 2020, the Cupertino company acquired 25 companies specializing in artificial intelligence, including start-ups Induktiv, Voysis and PullString, which GlobalData said were supposed to help develop Apple’s voice assistant Siri. Between 2016 and 2020, Google acquired fourteen AI companies, Microsoft twelve and Facebook nine.

According to GlobalData, Siri is the main reason for the majority of Apple’s acquisitions. “Apple’s shopping spree serves to keep up with the development of Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. Because although Siri was the first to hit the market, the voice assistant appears to be underperforming,” said Nicklas Nilsson, Senior Analyst at GlobalData.

The research also shows that Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft together have made the most acquisitions worldwide in the field of artificial intelligence. “These companies have completed 60 acquisitions and posted more than 14,000 artificial intelligence jobs in 2020,” said Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Business Fundamentals Analyst at GlobalData. “Artificial intelligence is still the main focus area for these tech giants. That, combined with increasing competition in AI, has led these companies to buy.”

In the results of GlobalData, Irish Accenture stands out as the only European company. According to the research firm, this is because the United States is a frontrunner in the development of artificial intelligence and the American tech giants dominate the market.