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The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has reshaped the global financial landscape, driving investments in intangible assets to an all-time high of over $10 trillion in 2025.
A comprehensive study released Wednesday by the United Nations’ patent and innovation agency, the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), highlights this monumental shift toward a knowledge-based economy.
These intangible investments encompass software, data, research and development, brands, design, and organisational know-how, which now command a massive and expanding share of global economic activity.
Co-published with the Rome-headquartered Luiss Business School, the World Intangible Investment Highlights 2026 analysed 29 major economies that collectively represent 57 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP).
The findings outline a durable structural shift in how nations create economic value.
Since 2008, intangible investments have expanded at an annual rate of 3.5 per cent in real terms, vastly outperforming physical or tangible investments, which grew at a meagre 0.98 per cent over the same period.
The report underlines the remarkable resilience of intangible assets amid recent global economic turbulence.
High Interest Rates
Even as countries grappled with high interest rates, trade tensions, and broader economic slowdowns, spending on intangibles surged by 5.5 per cent annually between 2020 and 2025.
In contrast, tangible investments managed only a 3.2 per cent growth rate during those same years.
Artificial intelligence acts as a primary catalyst for this ongoing transformation.
While the technology initially sparks immediate physical spending on semiconductor manufacturing, data centres, and power grid infrastructure, WIPO estimates that AI’s permanent economic footprint will ultimately rest on software, databases, R&D, and corporate reorganisations.
Demonstrating this trend, software and database investments recorded a staggering 7.3 per cent annual growth rate between 2013 and 2023, outstripping organisational capital and brand development.
Geographically, the United States dominates the intangible landscape by a wide margin.
The nation invested nearly $5 trillion in intangible assets in 2025 alone, a figure roughly six times larger than second-placed Japan, with Germany capturing the third spot.
However, when measuring intangible intensity relative to economic size, Sweden claims the top spot globally, allocating 17.4 per cent of its GDP to these assets.
The United States follows closely at 15.6 percent, with France taking third at 15.2 percent.
Meanwhile, emerging and developing markets are quickly accelerating, with India, Japan, and the Philippines posting the fastest growth rates.
Global Corporate World
The report also emphasises the tremendous economic value of branding. Across the 29 nations surveyed, companies directed $1.4 trillion toward brand investments in 2025.
The US led this category heavily, spending over $566 billion—more than four times the amount spent by Great Britain, which placed second with $137 billion, followed by Japan at $112 billion.
Notably, the study excluded China, the world’s second-largest economy, from its cross-country analysis.
Ultimately, the data paints a picture of a global corporate world that prioritises ideas and code over bricks and mortar.
As Geneva-based WIPO continues its mission to help entrepreneurs and creators protect their intellectual property across international borders, the 2025 investment surge underscores a permanent migration toward digital and proprietary assets as the chief engines of future wealth.
