Data-Center Technology Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Data-Center Technology Patents: Filing Trends and Claim Concentration
41.7% concentration. The top 5 assignees hold 19,561 of 46,874 records in scope — filing here means contesting occupied ground, not open field. Filings rose from 796 in 2017 to a peak of 2,980 in 2022, then eased to 2,136 by 2024 — a -16% move over that three-year span. The 2025 (partial) and 2026 figures will rise as later publications post; they should not be read as a decline yet.
- 1INTEL CORP14.1%
- 2NVIDIA CORP10.8%
- 3HUAWEI TECH CO LTD7.9%
- 4PURE STORAGE INC5.4%
- 5MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC3.6%
See the full data-center technology patent landscape analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions about this landscape
Who holds the most data-center technology patents?
The ranking in this dataset is led by a single assignee with 6,603 records out of 46,874 in scope, with the fifth-ranked holder at 1,671 and the tenth at 843. Together the top 5 account for 41.7% of all records, and the top 10 for 53.3%. That leaves the remaining 90 ranked assignees, plus unranked filers, splitting under half the field, so most portfolios outside the leading group are comparatively thin.
Is data-center patent filing activity growing or slowing?
Filings rose steadily from 796 in 2017 to a peak of 2,980 in 2022, then eased to 2,136 by 2024 — a decline of 16% over that three-year span. Figures for 2025 and 2026 are still incomplete because publication typically lags filing by about eighteen months, so it is premature to call this a sustained slowdown rather than a partial pull-back from an unusually high 2022 peak.
What technology areas dominate data-center patent claims?
General digital data processing under IPC class G06F is the single largest category, appearing in 25.9% of the 46,874 records, more than double the next largest class, H04L digital information transmission, at 11.6%. AI-model computing (G06N), image processing (G06T) and image/video recognition (G06V) each sit in the low single digits. Because a record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares sum to more than 100%, reflecting overlap rather than double counting of records.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Data-Center Technology Patent Landscape covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-08-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.