Large Language Model Patents: Leaders, Trends & White Space 2026
Large Language Model Patents: Who Leads and Where the Field Is Still Open
20.4% concentration at the top. The top 5 assignees hold 6,359 of 31,128 records in scope — a real lead, but not a lock on the field. Annual filings moved from 344 in 2017 to a peak of 5,329 in 2024, a +520% rise across just 2021 to 2024. The 2025 and 2026 figures sit far lower, but that reflects publication lag, not a real slowdown — treat the last one to two years as still filling in rather than as evidence of a falling trend.
- 1MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC6.3%
- 2GOOGLE LLC5.2%
- 3SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO LTD3.4%
- 4AMAZON TECH INC3.2%
- 5INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION2.3%
See the full large language 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 large language model patents
Who holds the most large language model patents?
The ranked dataset shows a clear leader holding 1,947 records, well ahead of the fifth-ranked assignee at 726 and the tenth-ranked at 293. The top 5 assignees combined hold 6,359 records, 20.4% of the 31,128 records in scope, and the top 10 add up to 27.3%. That leaves the majority of filings spread across a long tail of smaller and single-filing entities, so no one company controls the field outright.
How fast is large language model patent filing growing?
Filing volume rose from 859 records in 2021 to a peak of 5,329 in 2024, a growth of 520% over that three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year that can be read as a complete annual figure. Counts for 2025 and 2026 appear much lower in the raw data, but that reflects the roughly 18-month lag between filing and publication rather than an actual slowdown in filing activity.
Which patent classes cover large language model technology?
The core technical claims cluster in G06F (electric digital data processing, 31.9% of records) and G06N (computing based on AI models, 20.1%), with G10L (speech and audio analysis/synthesis) covering a further 18.0%. Narrower application classes such as G06Q (business processes), H04L (digital transmission), G06T (image processing) and G16H (healthcare informatics) each cover under 6% of records. Because a single record can carry multiple IPC classes, these shares add up to more than 100% and should not be summed into a single total.
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 Large Language 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.