Deutsche Boerse creates index using algorithm to track AI leaders like Apple

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Boerse has launched an index that tracks companies that are leaders in artificial intelligence (AI) by using an algorithm to identify early adopters of the technology.

Companies in the index include Apple, Deutsche Telekom, Bank of America and Facebook, the German stock exchange operator said on Monday.

It said it had found a way to identify AI-related patent filings to select the 200 companies that compose the index, called the AI STOXX Global Artificial Intelligence Index.

The patents are an early indicator of AI innovators and the index, the first of its kind, will help index-tracking funds interested in companies focused on artificial intelligence, Deutsche Boerse said.

"Today's early adopters are set to be tomorrow's AI leaders," Matteo Andreetto, chief executive of Deutsche Boerse's index business STOXX, said in a statement. "Investors need solutions to discern hype from a real opportunity."

Deutsche Boerse, which announced the index at an exchange-trade fund conference in the United States, has partnered with Yewno, an AI company based in Redwood City, California, to create the index.

Deutsche Boerse's Stoxx unit operates more than 7,500 indexes, including the Euro Stoxx 50.

(Reporting by Tom Sims; Editing by Susan Fenton)