AI "Patent Storm" Continues with Greatest New Gains in Agentic AI

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, the world's leading source of patent data, today released "IFI Insights: Inventing AI," its annual report on artificial intelligence patenting. Findings show that the broad category of worldwide AI patents has broken the 100,000 grants milestone coming in at 107,279 for 2025 which is up 83 percent from just three years ago.

For U.S. patents, the trendline for AI grants was quite steep from 2018 to 2023 but is down about 7% from 2023. Generative AI-specific patents, however, continue to post steady gains, up 11% from the previous year. Interest in agentic AI patents is also on the rise with U.S. grants up 14% from the previous year and up 70% since 2021.

What's more telling is the sharp rise in agentic AI patent applications in the last two years, signaling intense interest in protecting inventions around agentic technology. In the U.S., agentic patent applications rocketed 40% in 2025 over the previous year and 62% over the past two years. Additionally, worldwide agentic AI applications are up 59% over the past year and 137% from two years ago.

"The AI patent storm that has been building for several years is fully formed this year," said Lily Iacurci, senior marketing manager, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services. "Even as the overall category of U.S. AI patents is slowing a bit, generative AI patents continue to grow and the frenzy around agentic AI is now in the patent spotlight."

According to the report, GenAI covers 16% of the total AI patent domain, but agentic AI now comprises 15%, up from just 7% in IFI's previous findings.

2026 Top Companies Applying for AI Patents

Samsung applied for the most AI patents worldwide in 2025 with 2162 filings, followed by Huawei with 1822 and Google at 1672. When looking at just U.S. filings, Samsung also places first with 682 applications, followed by Google at 671 and Microsoft with 585.

Narrowing the field to GenAI patent applications, Google takes top billing in both the U.S. and globally. Microsoft comes in second and Nvidia third on IFI's U.S. GenAI applications ranking.

Looking at agentic AI patent applications, Nvidia leads the way here in both U.S. and global agentic patents with 128 and 225 applications, respectively. Microsoft comes in second on the U.S. ranking with 112, while Google is third with 91.

"While we've seen an overall increase in patent activity for GenAI and Agentic AI," continued Iacurci, "given the nature of AI's rapid evolution, some companies' approach to protecting their AI inventions varies from a robust patent portfolio to a few defensive patents to leaning more heavily on trade secrets."

OpenAI, quite possibly the most well-known AI company, filed just 27 U.S. applications during 2025, while Anthropic filed 7, and Alibaba 4. Deepseek, a Chinese model that shook the stock market in early 2025, holds no patents related to its technology in the U.S. nor worldwide. Further, xAI (a subsidiary of SpaceX) also holds no patents or applications in this space, according to the IFI findings. 

For a look at the full report, visit IFI Insights: Inventing AI. For the most recent ranking report, visit the 2025 IFI U.S. Top 50 patent ranking.

About IFI CLAIMS Patent Services
IFI CLAIMS Patent Services uses proprietary data architecture to produce the industry's most accurate global patent database. The CLAIMS Direct platform allows for the easy integration of applications, other data sets, and analysis software. IFI CLAIMS is part of Digital Science, a digital research technology company based in London. For more information, visit www.ificlaims.com and follow IFI on LinkedIn. 

About Digital Science
Digital Science is an AI-focused technology company providing innovative solutions to complex challenges faced by researchers, universities, government, funders, industry, and publishers. We work in partnership to advance global research for the benefit of society. Through our brands – Altmetric, Dimensions, Figshare, IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, metaphacts, Overleaf, ReadCube, Symplectic, and Writefull – we believe when we solve problems together, we drive progress for all. Visit digital-science.com and follow Digital Science on Bluesky, on X or on LinkedIn.

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SOURCE IFI CLAIMS Patent Services