(Yicai) April 22 -- Chinese internet behemoths Tencent Holdings and Baidu were the top two applicants of artificial intelligence-related patents in the past 10 years, as the internet industry made a headstart in generative search, smart archiving and model training, according to the latest research.

Tencent rolled out its large language model Hunyuan last year, Baidu unveiled its ChatGPT-like Ernie Bot as well as the country’s first open-source deep learning platform AI Studio PaddlePaddle, while Alibaba launched its LLM series named Tongyi. E-retailer JD.com was another internet company that made the top 10.

Finance platforms, such as Ping An and Ant Group, were not far behind. Insurer Ping An ranked third with 13,139 patents, and Hangzhou-based Ant was in sixth place with 4,381. The finance sector handles vast volumes of data and has created a digital infrastructure. It was also one of the first sectors in which AI was applied, according to a report by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Telecom companies Huawei Technologies, Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications and China Mobile were also in the top 10, holding 5,966, 3,743, and 3,709 patents, respectively. China is the world's biggest consumer and maker of smartphones and many high-tech specialists have joined these firms over the last 10 years.

Last year, Shenzhen-based Huawei and Oppo released their LLMs Pangu and AndesGPT whose capabilities include image processing, computer vision, speech technology, natural language processing and machine learning.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Kim Taylor