DeepMind Team That Beat Humans at Poker Now Manages Billions on the Stock Market

Former employees of DeepMind, one of the most prestigious research centers in the field of AI, have set out to revolutionize the financial markets. The authors of the algorithm that once defeated professional poker players are now applying their expertise to stock exchanges. Their Prague-based startup, EquiLibre Technologies, was valued at $500 million following its Series A investment round. This was reported by Techcrunch.com reports .

According to TechCrunch, this investment round was led by the venture fund Creandum. Although the exact amount of the investment was not disclosed, Creandum representative Cameron Sellers confirmed it as the largest investment in a single project in the company's history. This situation once again proves how high the similarity is between gaming algorithms and the financial market in the tech world.

From Poker to the Streets of Wall Street

The key factor linking poker and the stock market is the "reinforcement learning" method. In this approach, the AI model trains itself in exchange for a specific reward, namely profit. Martin Schmid, head of EquiLibre Technologies, noted that evaluating results in financial markets is very simple: the amount of money the algorithm earns demonstrates its effectiveness.

Currently, the company is conducting daily trading operations worth billions of dollars within the NASDAQ and S&P 500 indices in partnership with the quant firm Tower Research Capital. Most interestingly, since its establishment in 2022, these algorithms have not ended a single month in loss. This result is considered astonishing even for the most experienced traders.

The company founders — Martin Schmid, Rudolf Kadlec, and Matej Moravcik — do not come from a finance background. They created the DeepStack program at the DeepMind laboratory within Google. This program was the world's first AI to defeat humans in Texas hold’em poker. Their advisory board also includes the legendary scientist Rich Sutton, winner of the 2024 Turing Award.

Prague — The New Hub of AI

While many IT specialists strive for Silicon Valley, the EquiLibre team decided to return to their homeland, the Czech Republic. According to Schmid, working in Prague has its own advantages. There is less staff turnover, and new "hyped" projects every two months do not distract the specialists' attention. The team currently consists of 25 people, most of whom are Czech engineers who returned from Google and other tech giants.

EquiLibre plans to launch one of the largest computing clusters in Central and Eastern Europe in the near future. This will allow them to perform even more complex market analyses. Previously, the company also attracted investment from the Credo fund, which supported projects like ElevenLabs and UiPath.

While automation in financial markets is not new, the approach of the former DeepMind employees stands out for its precision and flexibility. If their algorithms maintain the current growth rate, it is certain to create serious competition for traditional hedge funds and investment banks. A machine that is zero-emotion and performs thousands of analyses per second will always be one step ahead of the human factor.