China AI startups lead global patent race

From DeepSeek to Moonshot AI, Chinese startups and institutions are rewriting the rules of global AI development. China now owns 74.7% of global AI patents.

• China holds 74.7% of global AI patents, filing four times more than the US in 2022 and six times more between 2014–2023. The AI patent landscape grew 63% in 2023 alone.

• Government backing fuels growth with $184B invested in 20,000+ AI deals since 2000. Institutions like Tsinghua University are central to producing top startups like Zhipu AI and Moonshot AI.

• DeepSeek’s open-source strategy disrupts norms, building its R1 model in two months for under $6M and surpassing ChatGPT on the App Store.

• China dominates key AI domains, leading in NLP, computer vision, and robotics—holding two-thirds of the world’s effective robot patents.

• AI patent strategies are evolving, with a shift toward open-source licensing, defensive patents, and hybrid monetization models in response to rapid innovation cycles.

Chinese companies filed four times more AI patents than the United States in 2022. This achievement showcases the country's booming AI ecosystem that now includes more than 4,300 companies and holds a value exceeding $70 billion. The world saw AI patent applications jump 63% in 2023, and China remained the frontrunner in this race.

Government backing plays a crucial role in China's AI success story. State-supported venture capital funds poured $184 billion into more than 20,000 deals from 2000 to 2023.

New players dubbed "AI Tigers" - Baichuan, Zhipu AI, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax - have caught investors' attention. Baidu AI Cloud has proven its market strength by capturing a 19.9% share and earning $49 million in revenue in the last year.

Chinese AI companies file record-breaking patent numbers

Chinese research institutions and companies are breaking records in artificial intelligence patent applications.

The World Intellectual Property Organization shows Chinese inventor-led AI patent filing was six times that of the United Statesbetween 2014 and 2023. China now owns 74.7% of global AI patents.

DeepSeek rewrites the rules with open-source AI

DeepSeek has become a strong competitor in the global digital world since Liang Wenfeng founded it in 2023.

The company's chatbot became the most downloaded free app on Apple's US App Store and pushed aside OpenAI's ChatGPT. DeepSeek stands out because it built its R1 model in just two months for less than $6 million.

DeepSeek has kept its patent portfolio small, despite its technical achievements. The company owns just four granted patents and ten pending applications in China. This seems to be a defensive choice, similar to OpenAI's approach of using patents only to protect itself.

Other Chinese companies file patents aggressively. They submitted 20,081 patent applications to the European Patent Office in 2024, making up 10.1% of all applications.

Huawei led with 4,322 applications and ranked second at the EPO. Five more Chinese companies—CATL, ZTE, Xiaomi, Vivo Mobile, and Tencent—made it to the top 50 applicants.

Tsinghua University fuels china’s new wave of AI unicorns

Tsinghua University sits at the heart of China's AI rise. It serves as a vital hub to develop many successful AI ventures.

The university gives talent, research resources, and funding through its investment vehicles to support new AI companies.

Many top AI startups have Tsinghua connections—Zhipu AI grew in its research labs, while Baichuan AI, Moonshot AI, and MiniMax were started by the university's faculty or alumni.

Chinese academic institutions' influence goes beyond developing talent. Three Chinese research groups rank among the top 20 patent holders in generative AI worldwide:

• The Chinese Academy of Sciences (4th overall)

• Tsinghua University (leads in 3D image models with 32 relevant patent applications)

• Zhejiang University (leads in software and code-based generative AI with 10 related patent filings)

These research institutions make a big difference. The Chinese Academy of Sciences creates more technologies for processing image and video data than anyone else.

Chinese companies dominate in diffusion models and have filed over 14 times as many patent applications since 2014 compared to the United States.

China leads in patent numbers, but questions about quality remain. Critics point out that Chinese patents get fewer citations than American ones. In spite of that, the Chinese Academy of Sciences stays ahead when researchers focus on highly cited papers.