AI Share of S&P 500 Patent Grants (Quarterly)

## What this measures

Of all U.S. utility patents granted to S&P 500 companies in a quarter, the percentage classified in a documented set of AI technology classes: machine learning and neural networks (CPC G06N), pattern recognition (G06F 18), image recognition using machine learning (G06V 10/70–86), neural-network speech recognition and analysis (G10L 15/16, G10L 25/30) and natural language processing (G06F 40).

## Why it matters

Patents are the paper trail of R&D spending two to four years earlier. A rising AI share says large companies are redirecting invention toward AI, which is an early read on where their products, capex and hiring are going.

## How to read it

Higher means a larger share of big-company invention is AI. It moves slowly; read the trend over several quarters. A quarter is published once it has closed (patents are granted every Tuesday).

## What it does not say

It is a share, so it rises when AI patenting grows or when other patenting falls. Classification codes are assigned by examiners and are updated over time. Grants reflect applications filed years earlier and USPTO examination speed. Attribution is by the first-named applicant, matched exactly to the company or an Exhibit 21 subsidiary.

## Source

United States Patent and Trademark Office, Open Data Portal Patent File Wrapper API (https://data.uspto.gov). Public domain; Source: United States Patent and Trademark Office, www.uspto.gov. PatentsView's search API has been offline since its move into the Open Data Portal (2026-03-20), so counts come from the ODP directly. AI class set and company matching by Palanor.

## Revision — 2026-09-26

Universe updated to current S&P 500 constituents (8 out, 3 in). Out: Builders FirstSource, Molson Coors and The Trade Desk, which left the index on 21 September 2026; Electronic Arts, which was taken private and left on 5 August 2026; and MongoDB, Cloudflare, Snowflake and Zoom, which were never members and had been included in error since May 2026. In: Bloom Energy, Everpure and Illumina, which joined on 21 September 2026. Membership now comes from a dated constituent list refreshed monthly. The corrected list applies from 26 September 2026. Readings before that date are unchanged.