Top Patenting Powerhouses of 2024

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In 2006, IEEE Spectrumranked patenting powerhouses in our first annual patent survey. The survey, conducted by the research firm 1790 Analytics, examined the number and influence of U.S. patents generated by more than 1,000 organizations. Semiconductor manufacturer Micron Technology came out on top at the time, with IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, and Broadcom rounding out the top five.

Nearly 20 years later, every company on the top 10 list has been usurped. Once mighty companies have fallen in the ranks, others have come and gone, and the top spots are largely filled by today’s Big Tech companies. In place of semiconductors and computer systems, the top categories in this year’s scorecard are all about Internet services—the category labeled “Telecom and Internet”—and consumer electronics.

Digging into the data reveals Amazon’s might, the hidden power of subsidiaries, and which countries are producing U.S. patents—it’s not just the United States. You can explore it all for yourself in the interactive graphic below. Simply click on a category to see which companies produced the most powerful patent portfolios in 2024.

The rankings are based on Pipeline Power, a metric calculated by 1790 Analytics that combines several elements of an organization’s patent portfolio into one number. In addition to the number of patents granted in a given year, this metric takes into account four variables representing the quality and impact of those patents. (More details on the calculations are below in the Methodology section.)

Amazon Tops the List

At a glance, it’s clear that Amazon leads with the highest patent power. The tech giant has produced a more influential patent portfolio than entire industry categories.

However, Amazon didn’t produce the largest number of patents in 2024. That achievement goes to Samsung; with more than 9,000 patents, the electronics company was granted more than twice the number produced by the second most prolific company, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC).

Meanwhile, Amazon ranked 20th in terms of the raw number of patents. So how does it have the largest power? In short, because its patents tend to be cited more frequently, and by a variety of other patents. Similarly, Snap, the company that owns Snapchat and Bitmoji, ranks above more frequent filers Qualcomm and Google, despite being granted just 770 patents last year.

Hidden Power in Subsidiaries

Several companies have a greater patent power than is immediately visible, when you consider their subsidiaries. For example, Alphabet is categorized as a conglomerate with a patent power of about 4,056. But it has two subsidiaries: Google and Waymo, both in the Telecom and Internet category. Adding in its subsidiaries, Alphabet’s patent power would roughly double, achieving a score higher than those of all the other conglomerates combined.

Defense contractor RTX (formerly Raytheon) has the most subsidiaries included in the data collection. Seven companies listed in the Aerospace category are all owned by RTX, in addition to RTX itself. Adding their combined patent power to RTX’s accounts for more than two-thirds of the combined patent power of all Aerospace companies. RTX is the only company with more than two subsidiaries included in the survey. Sony, Johnson & Johnson, and GE Vernova all have two each, and several other companies have one.

In Consumer Electronics, Apple leads the pack by a large margin, with about 40 percent of the category’s patent power. Samsung has patents filed both under its primary company, Samsung Electronics, and a subsidiary that focuses on display technology. These two companies take the second and third place in the category. But even grouped together, their combined patent power is well behind Apple’s.

Western Digital’s Sandisk Corp, in the Computer Peripherals category, is the subsidiary with the largest patent power for 2024. Sandisk has a score of about 5,087, more than triple that of its parent company. In fact, Sandisk’s successes in flash storage led to its launch as an independent public company in February of 2025.

Splunk, owned by Cisco, tops the Computer Software category, beating out Microsoft, Oracle, and Intuit. This company specializes in collecting and organizing large amounts of machine-generated data. While Splunk is less of a household name than Microsoft, its research into managing data generated by AI has helped launch it to the top of its category.

Overall, the number of AI patents filed has grown over the past few years, according to 1790 Analytics. Although many of these were submitted by organizations in the Computer Software category, some AI powerhouses fall under other categories, like Conglomerates.

Which Countries Are Producing U.S. Patents?

The companies represented here include only those with at least 25 patents granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2024. Out of 247 organizations that meet this requirement, 148 were from the United States. So where else are companies filing U.S. patents from?

Japan comes in second place, with 24 companies. These companies span a range of categories, including Consumer Electronics, Computer Peripherals, and Semiconductors. The Japanese company with the highest patent power is Semiconductor Energy Laboratory, taking the top spot in its category.

After Japan, Germany and South Korea are tied with nine companies each, and Taiwan has eight listed. The South Korean companies are nearly all in the Consumer Electronics or Automotive and Transportation categories, the Taiwanese companies are mostly in Computer Peripherals, and the German companies span a wider range of categories. Following these, France and China both have seven companies listed, and many more countries have one or two companies listed.

Big Names, Small Patent Power

Patent power is but one measure of a company’s impact. Some well-known companies have surprisingly small patent power, compared to their cultural or market influence. Microsoft, for example, ranks 31st in patent power, despite being one of the most valuable companies based on
market capitalization.

Meta also falls surprisingly low, considering the company’s hefty research and development budget. In 2024, the social media mammoth spent US $43 billion, an amount
surpassed only by Alphabet in one survey. (Notably, the survey omitted Amazon because it doesn’t report R&D expenses as a separate line item. Amazon’s R&D spending likely exceeds that of Alphabet.)

Looking at the strength of a company’s patent portfolio doesn’t replace these other metrics, but it does provide another view of an organization’s impact. Amazon, Apple, Snap, Samsung, and Qualcomm, in that order, are 2024’s victors. What companies will rise to the top in 2025?