China leads in AI innovation with 378,000 patents, outpacing global growth rate

.The number of successful artificial intelligence (AI) invention patents in China will reach 378,000 by the end of 2023, reflecting a year-on-year growth rate of more than 40%, according to figures provided by the country’s top intellectual property regulator on Monday.


“The growth rate in China is 1.4 times higher than the global average,” the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) stated at a press briefing in Beijing.

The AI business highlights China’s digital economy’s strong innovation potential. Last year, the digital economy’s main industries accounted for 10% of GDP.

In 2023, the number of invention patents issued in China’s main digital economy industries reached 406,000, accounting for 45 percent of all awarded invention patents in the country. Furthermore, the average annual growth rate over the last five years was 21%, according to Ge Shu, a senior CNIPA official, who noted that technical breakthroughs are thriving in the digital economy.

He noted that by the end of 2023, 155,000 domestic firms would have secured invention patents relating to the digital economy, up 31,000 from the previous year.

A staff worker interacts with a virtual human at the Global Digital Economy Conference 2024 (GDEC 2024) in Beijing, China’s capital, on July 2, 2024. (Xinhua / Ren Chao)
Foreign companies are likewise expanding their patent portfolios in the core industries of China’s digital economy. According to Ge, by the end of last year, 93 countries (regions) had valid invention patents in these industries in China, with the digital product manufacturing sector accounting for 61.8 percent.

Inventions and Patents

In the first half of this year, foreign applicants filed 78,000 inventive patent applications in China, representing a 13.1 percent increase year on year. Japan had the biggest number, followed by the United States and the Republic of Korea.