Foundation Models Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Foundation Models Patents: mapping who owns the training-data and inference claims
Filings grew 265% from 2021 to 2024, climbing from 538 to 1,963 records before the most recent, still-incomplete years understate the true count. Annual filings rose from 26 records in 2017 to a peak of 1,963 in 2024 — a 265% increase between 2021 and 2024 alone. The 268 records recorded for 2026 and the lower 2025 count are not a real contraction; they reflect publication lag, not falling filing activity.
- 1NVIDIA CORP5.6%
- 2MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC4.0%
- 3INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION3.4%
- 4GOOGLE LLC3.2%
- 5ROBERT BOSCH GMBH1.8%
See the full foundation models 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 foundation model patents
How many foundation model patents have been filed?
This dataset identifies 6,757 published records matching foundation-model terminology combined with training-data, parameter, feature-vector or inference language, filed between 2015 and the 2026 data cut-off. Annual filings rose from 26 in 2017 to a peak of 1,963 in 2024. The lower counts shown for 2025 and 2026 reflect publication lag of roughly 18 months rather than an actual decline in filing activity, so the true 2025-2026 totals will rise as more records publish.
Which companies hold the most foundation model patents?
The ranked leaders include large platform vendors, enterprise software companies and component makers, with the leading assignee holding 381 records compared with 120 at fifth place and 67 at tenth. The top 10 assignees together account for 23.8% of all 6,757 records, and the top 5 for 17.9%, which means the great majority of filings sit outside the leading group in a long tail of smaller filers. This is a moderately concentrated field, not one dominated by a single owner.
What technology areas do foundation model patents cover?
By IPC subclass, AI-based computing (G06N) appears in 41.7% of records and general digital data processing (G06F) in 37.5%, making these the two densest claim areas. Image and video recognition (G06V) and image data processing (G06T) form a secondary cluster at 16.5% and 15.4% respectively. Healthcare informatics, business data processing, speech/audio and digital transmission each cover a smaller single-digit-to-high-single-digit share, and because records can carry multiple IPC classes these shares sum to more than 100%.
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 Foundation Models 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.