Executive Summary

In this report, we explore Amazon’s patent initiatives and history and examine some of the company’s latest inventions.

• As of January 23, 2018, Amazon owned 7,096 US patents filed under two business entities, Amazon Technologies, Inc., and Amazon.com, Inc.
• The company holds more patents than most other US retailers and more patents than its closest global competitor, Alibaba.
• Amazon holds more US patents related to emerging technologies—such as machine learning, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics—than tech firms Apple and Facebook do.
• Amazon spent $16.1 billion on various R&D initiatives in 2017, making it one of the top-ranked companies in terms of R&D investment last year.