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Global investment in intangible assets, encompassing areas such as software, data, research and development, and brands, surged to an all-time high of over $10 trillion in 2025. This record figure, detailed in the World Intangible Investment Highlights 2026 by the UN's World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and Luiss Business School, represents a substantial and growing portion of the global economy.

Since 2008, intangible investments have demonstrated robust growth, averaging 3.5% annually in real terms. This significantly outpaces the growth of tangible investments, which saw an average annual increase of just 0.98% over the same period. WIPO notes this indicates a "durable structural shift" in investment composition, with intellectual property increasingly driving value creation. The United States accounts for the largest share of this investment, nearing $5 trillion in 2025, a figure roughly six times that of second-place Japan.

The report highlights the resilience of intangible assets, particularly in the face of recent economic challenges like high interest rates and trade tensions. Between 2020 and 2025, intangible investments grew by 5.5% annually, compared to 3.2% for tangible investments. Artificial intelligence is identified as a key catalyst in this transformation, not only driving initial physical investments but also fostering long-term impacts through software, data, R&D, and corporate restructuring.

Investment in software and databases has seen the highest aggregate real growth rate among intangible assets from 2013 to 2023, at 7.3% annually. Brand investment also remains significant, reaching $1.4 trillion across 29 economies in 2025, with the US leading substantially. Economies like Sweden, the US, and France show the highest intensity of intangible investment relative to their GDP, while India, Japan, and the Philippines are experiencing the fastest growth.

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These figures point to a durable structural shift in the composition of investment, with intangible assets playing a growing role in value creation.