IPlytics, a German market intelligence company, unveils in a freshly released statement called 'Who is patenting AI technology?', the companies leading the way in AI research — at least in regards to volume. The forerunner in relation to AI-related patents is in fact Microsoft, which owns 18,365 as of January 2019. Another U.S. company, IBM is in second place with 15,046 and the South Korean Samsung is in third with 11,243.