China Accounts for 70% of Global Artificial Intelligence Funding

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A new study indicates that Chinese artificial intelligence companies account for the majority of global financing in the sector.

The “China AI Development Report 2018” (中国AI发展报告2018) just released by Tsinghua University indicates that in 2017 global AI funding reached USD$39.5 billion, with China accounting for $27.71 billion, or approximately 70% of the total.

1208 funding events took place in the sector last year, with China accounting for 369.

China has taken the lead in the production of AI academic papers for the two decade period from 1997 to 2017, with a total of 369,588 papers, as compared to 327,034 from the United States, 96,536 from the United Kingdom, 94,112 from Japan and 85,587 from Germany.

The Chinese Academy of Sciences is the research institution which was produced the largest number of AI academic papers at 26,176, followed by the French National Center for Scientific Research in second place with 25,728, and the Californian university system in third with 24,165.

The Indian Institutes of Technology is in the fourth place with 14,070, followed by Tsinghua university in fifth place with 13,693, and Harbin Industrial University in sixth place with 11,675.

According to the AI Development Report China is also the country that has produced the largest number of highly cited papers at 2349, as well as the highest number of “hot spot” papers (81).

The US produced 2241 highly cited papers and 55 hot spot papers, while the UK produced 811 and 23 respectively.

China is also host to the largest number of AI patents, followed by the US in second place, and Japan in third.

The US is host to the largest number of AI experts with 28,536, or 13.9% of the global total of 204,575, while China is in second place with 18,232 (8.9%), followed by India (17,384), Germany (9,441) and the UK (7998).