Patent Portfolios of the Top 25 Well-Funded AV Companies

The following table lists the top 25 well-funded autonomous vehicle companies according to CrunchBase. Based on a search of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s publicly available information, the top 25 autonomous vehicle companies have the following patent assets. It should be noted that patent applications typically do not publish for 18 months after their filing date, so the number of patent assets listed here represents a snapshot of the number of patent assets owned by the company as of 18 months ago.

Rank Based on CB Score	Company	Location	Year Founded	# Patent Assets
1	Tesla	California	2003	813
2	Bolt Technology	Estonia	2013	0
3	Mobileye	Israel	1999	381
4	Hesai Technology	China	2013	0
5	Cruise	California	2013	12
6	TuSimple	California	2015	161
7	Otonomo	Israel	2015	1
8	Argo AI	Pennsylvania	2016	0
9	Nauto	California	2015	34
10	Quanergy Systems	California	2012	20
11	Innoviz Technologies	Israel	2016	37
12	Embark Technology	California	2016	0
13	Momenta	China	2016	0
14	Brain Corp	California	2009	318
15	Aeye	California	2013	42
16	Arrival	England	2015	1
17	Wheels	California	2018	0
18	Applied Intution	California	2017	0
19	Zendrive	California	2013	34
20	May Mobility	Michigan	2017	0
21	Arbe	Israel	2015	2
22	Ghost Locomotion	California	2017	0
23	Ike	California	2018	0
24	Cortica	Israel	2007	216
25	Optimus Ride	Massachusetts	2015	0

Tesla, the top ranked AV company per CrunchBase, also has the most patent assets, amounting to about 40% of the total patent assets held by the top 25 companies. About half (13) of the top 25 companies were founded in California, and 5 of the top 25 companies were founded in Israel. Of the 2,072 patent assets held by the top 25 companies, California-based companies own approximately 70% (1,434) of the patent assets, and Israel-based companies own the remaining 30% (637), with the exception of 1 patent asset owned by an England-based company. Of the 15 companies founded since 2015, only three companies have a sizeable patent portfolio: TuSimple (161), Nauto (34), and Innoviz Technologies (37).

California and Israel-based AV companies appear to be leading the way with regard to pursuing patent protection for AV innovation. However, most entrants since 2015 ranked in the top 25 have not yet developed sizeable patent portfolios. In an effort to catchup to the top patent holders or maintain their position on this list as Tesla has, new entrants may want to consider further building out their patent portfolios.

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