[News] Google Led TPU Innovation with Patent Spike; Broadcom, MediaTek Reportedly Boost Reserved Wafers

As Google intensifies its push for Tensor Processing Units (TPUs), aiming to secure more orders from major tech players, the company’s R&D efforts are clearly bearing fruit. Nikkei reports that the company has sharply increased patent filings for AI data-center semiconductors, with applications related to its in-house TPU rising 2.7-fold between 2018 and 2023.

The report highlights that this surge reflects a wider trend among hyperscalers to develop proprietary AI chips, hinting at a potential challenge to NVIDIA’s long-standing dominance. TrendForce estimates that Google’s TPU shipments will remain the largest among cloud service providers, with annual growth exceeding 40% in 2026.

Nikkei, using patent analytics tools from Kyoto-based Patentfield, examined global filings across Japan, the U.S., Europe, and China for keywords like “TPU,” “CPU,” and “GPU,” revealing a clear…