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America’s emerging AI leaders: Amazon, Walmart and Wells Fargo?

Updated Oct 2, 2024, 1:04pm EDT
techNorth America
Brendan McDermid/Reuters
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The Scoop

It’s not surprising that IBM, Alphabet, and Microsoft are leading the pack among S&P 500 companies for filing the most AI patents and employing the largest AI workforces.

But a new analysis by Georgetown University, shared first with Semafor, unearthed a couple AI leaders in the US that may not immediately come to mind, including Walmart, Ford, and Wells Fargo. Georgetown researchers measured the number of AI patents, hiring trends, and published work on AI-related topics to create an index ranking the top 30 AI leaders in the S&P 500.

IBM ranks at the top when looking at all three combined, followed by retail giant Amazon, which employs the most AI workers of any of the companies and more than twice the number of workers as Alphabet. The parent company of Google ranks third among S&P 500 companies overall, researchers at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology found.

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“Amazon may not have a brand-name AI hit akin to ChatGPT or Gemini, but it’s got huge presence in AI cloud infrastructure through Amazon Web Services and a massive retail operation that integrates AI in diverse ways,” Zachary Arnold, analytic lead at the Emerging Technology Observatory told Semafor in an email. This suggests Amazon’s reputation for being behind the curve on AI may be somewhat undeserved, and that the company has “big AI potential in the future,” he added.

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To be sure, tech heavyweights Meta, Apple and Intel, among others, round out the top ten. But that’s quickly followed by financial institutions Capital One, Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Ford debuts at No. 18 on the index while Walmart makes the chart at No. 23 when looking at total workforce, published research, and patents filed.

IBM leads the S&P 500 in filed patents, Microsoft in research, and Amazon in workforce.

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The S&P, which only tracks US companies, leaves out stiff competition from abroad. When taking into account foreign competitors, the researchers found that IBM still boasts the highest number of AI-related patents granted — 6,079 between 2013 and 2023. But close on its heels are China’s Baidu and Tencent, with 5,567 and 3,693 approvals, respectively. Other firms like video-sharing app Kuaishou and financial services conglomerate Ping An also appear to be making significant strides, ranking 5th and 6th, respectively, for recent growth in the amount of AI research published.

“As we consider how AI may shape China’s economy and international standing, our data suggests it’ll be important to follow companies like these, not just the ‘BAT’ [Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent] tech giants best known abroad,” Arnold said.


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