In the race for AI, Apple leads big tech in acquisitions.
Apple has acquired 30+ AI startups over the last decade. Google comes in second place with 21 acquisitions.
In 2023 so far, these companies have been relatively quiet on the AI M&A front. Only Apple and Google have made publicly disclosed AI acquisitions this year, purchasing AI video compression startup WaveOne and AI-powered math app Photomath, respectively.
Below, we highlight 4 key takeaways about big tech’s activity in AI.
Dive into each company’s acquisition history on its company profile: Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- AI acquisitions have bolstered big tech’s prominent products and services. Apple’s AI acquisition spree over the years has been essential to the development of iPhone features like Siri, while Google’s acquisition of DeepMind (in 2014) underpins its current AI research efforts.
- Big tech acquisition activity has trended downward overall. While historically big tech players have snapped up startups to acquire tech talent and expand into new markets and product lines, big tech acquisitions reached an 18-quarter low in Q2’23. A more challenging regulatory climate — especially in the US and Europe, where anti-trust pressure has been mounting — combined with the prevailing risk-off mentality of strategic acquirers, has led to a drastic decline in big tech acquisitions.
- While tech giants pull back on acquisitions, some are stepping up their AI investment activity. Microsoft, for example, has invested in 9 AI companies in 2023 so far, including Inflection AI and OpenAI (compared to 3 in 2022). Its M12 venture arm — which announced in January that its investments would be more closely tied to Microsoft’s broader strategy — has also done 5 AI deals this year.
- Amid the AI computing boom, expect continued AI investment from these companies. To keep pace with rivals Google and Microsoft, Amazon recently announced its intent to invest up to $4B in AI chatbot developer Anthropic. Other big tech players like Nvidia are also supercharging activity — Nividia has participated in some of the largest AI rounds of this year.