Developing artificial intelligence software is an ever-growing industry. Indeed, in 2016 its expected market growth rate was upwards of 4000% over the period of 9 years.
It follows that AI is a good opportunity for prospective investors. So, we might ask, who are the current major competitors in the AI business? An infographic by Nick Galov outlines data compiled on companies and countries who are in the vanguard of AI development. We will consider both groups more closely.
Where the companies are concerned, your average Joe might not be familiar with the name at the top of the list. Though DeepMind might not be as famous as some of its competitors, we can stress its importance by mentioning that it is, together with Google, a part of the Alphabet Inc. conglomerate. Yet, unlike Google, Deepmind is focused solely on research, especially on developing learning AIs.
They have already made significant breakthroughs in various fields and are currently the foremost company in AI development.
Some of the more famous companies on the list include Google and Facebook who hold second and third places, respectively. Google seems to pride itself on dabbling in all forms of AI research while Facebook appears to focus on developing AI for the purposes of bettering IT.
We can also mention OpenAI with many publications on learning and robotics and Baidu who are foremost in AI development in China and research deep learning so as to improve their own products.
It is also important to name the big players of the IT industry who invest in AI research: Microsoft, Apple, IBM, and Nvidia. Finally, we can mention Amazon attempting to use artificial intelligence to automatize retail and product delivery.
As far as countries are concerned, the United States is currently the world leader in AI research and development.
It should come as no surprise if we consider that a number of the aforementioned companies are situated in the U.S. Still, a research paper published by Will Hurd and Robin Kelly indicates that China may take over by the end of the current year.
This possibility should not be surprising either, given the recent explosion of technological development in China.
Japan, although seeming reluctant to cooperate with others in the development of AI, comes in the third place. We may attribute this to high development in the fields of technology and extensive investments in automation and robotics.
We can also mention the United Kingdom with significant investments in education concerning AI and Germany with a great number of newly-emerged AI businesses. Also important in the field of AI are France, Canada, Russia, Israel, and Estonia.
As we can see, research and development of artificial intelligence is already a well-established multi-billion dollar industry and, with a number of countries and companies investing, it is likely to keep expanding. As it is always the case with new technology, however, we cannot yet predict whose investment will pay off.
In the end, some might earn a fortune, and some may lose one, but we can say with reasonable certainty that the artificial intelligence industry is heading towards a bright future.
Featured Image: Pixabay
