Analyzing acquisitions, GlobalData experts have identified a certain pattern
With reference to the report of the analytical company GlobalData, the source claims that in the field of mergers and acquisitions of developers of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in 2016-2020, American tech giants dominated. Four of the five largest acquirer companies – Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook – are headquartered in the United States. The only non-American company in the top five is Accenture from Ireland.
Apple has bought the most AI companies in the past five years
“Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook made a total of 60 AI acquisitions between 2016 and 2020, while Apple led the race with 25 acquisitions,” a senior analyst at GlobalData outlined the situation. “AI remains a key area of focus for tech giants, and the growing competition to dominate this space has led to massive acquisitions.”
Analyzing the acquisitions, GlobalData experts concluded that Apple’s priority was acquiring technologies that would help improve the work of the virtual assistant Siri or give new functions to iPhones. In this analysts see Apple’s attempt to catch up with Google with the voice assistant Google Assistant and Amazon with the voice assistant Alexa. Although the voice assistant Siri was the first on the market, in terms of “smart” it is inferior to the other two, which is part of the reason for Apple’s strong lag in sales of smart speakers.
