GENEVA: The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) has helped push global investment in intangible assets such as software, data and research to a record level of more than $10 trillion in 2025, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
WIPO said investments in intangible assets, including research and development, software and databases, brands, design and organizational knowledge, now represent a growing share of global economic value creation.
The findings were published in the World Intangible Investment Highlights 2026, a report jointly released by WIPO and the Rome-based Luiss Business School.
The study covered 29 economies representing 57 percent of global GDP, including the United States, European Union nations, the United Kingdom, Japan and India. China, the world’s second-largest economy, was not included in the study.
According to the report, intangible investment has grown by 3.5 percent annually in real terms since 2008, significantly outpacing tangible investment growth of 0.98 percent during the same period.
“These figures point to a durable structural shift in the composition of investment, with intangible assets playing a growing role in value creation,” WIPO said.
The United States remained the world’s largest market for intangible investment, reaching nearly $5 trillion in 2025 — around six times higher than Japan, which ranked second, followed by Germany.
In terms of the share of GDP, Sweden was the most intangible-intensive economy at 17.4 percent, followed by the United States at 15.6 percent and France at 15.2 percent.
WIPO said India, Japan and the Philippines recorded the fastest growth in intangible investment.
The report noted that intangible investments remained more resilient than physical investments despite challenges including high interest rates, trade tensions and slower economic growth. Between 2020 and 2025, intangible investment increased by 5.5 percent annually, compared with 3.2 percent growth in tangible investment.
WIPO highlighted AI as a key driver of the transformation, saying its long-term economic impact would come primarily through investment in software, data, research and development, and organizational changes rather than only through physical infrastructure such as data centres and semiconductor facilities.
Among intangible asset categories, software and database investment recorded the strongest growth between 2013 and 2023, rising by 7.3 percent annually, followed by organizational capital at 4.9 percent and brands at 4.4 percent.
The report also showed the growing importance of brands, with investment across the 29 economies reaching $1.4 trillion in 2025. The United States led global brand investment at more than $566 billion, followed by the United Kingdom with $137 billion and Japan with $112 billion.
Established in 1967, Geneva-based WIPO works to support creators, innovators and businesses in protecting intellectual property rights internationally.
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