Google leading race for acquiring AI followed by Apple, Intel & Facebook

If you are a tech aficionado you would know that Artificial Intelligence, or AI as we know it, is a buzz word in the industry. Every other day we hear of one or the other AI startup acquisition by tech giants. In a recent report by research firm CB Insights around 46% of the AI companies have been acquired since 2012.

In the first quarter of 2017 there have been 34 artificial intelligence startup acquisitions. While Google tops the charts by acquiring 11 AI startups since 2012, followed by Apple with 7 such startups.

CB Insights reports, in Q1’17, Google acquired predictive analytics platform Kaggle. While, Apple recently acquired Tel Aviv-based RealFace, valued at $2M. The third place is shared by Intel, Facebook and Microsoft. Well, surprisingly Twitter happens to be the next most-active acquirer, with 4 major acquisitions, the most recent being image-processing startup Magic Pony.

It seems like it is good news for all Artificial Intelligence startups. CB Insights reveal that since 2012, there have been acquisitions of over 200 private companies using AI algorithms across different verticals.

And with more than 30 acquisitions taking place in Q1’17 alone as of March 2017. Not to forget we also saw one of the largest M&A deals this quarter Ford’s acquisition of Argo AI for $1B.

For now, we need to see who uses AI the best. With all these acquisitions we still need to see the way these tech-giants use these powers that come with artificial intelligence.