Google-owned DeepMind is on a mission to develop human-level AI. The company was founded in 2010 by Demis Hassabis, Mustafa Suleyman, and Shane Legg. While DeepMind saw its revenues increase in 2017, the company still saw a loss of $570 million in 2018. This is far worse than its profit from the previous year, which was only $341 million.
The company is able to generate revenue by selling its research to Alphabet. While Google has bankrolled DeepMind since 2014, it continues to incur losses. However, Alphabet is attempting to squeeze every last bit of revenue from DeepMind. According to The Wall Street Journal, DeepMind is now filing for PS826 million in 2020, and is already writing off nearly $1 billion in debt in 2019.
During its first half of 2019, the company tripled its revenue from PS265.5 million to PS826.2 million. However, this increase is unlikely to be sustainable given the company does not sell its products directly to consumers. The company also has not announced any deals with private companies outside of Alphabet, so the increase could just be “creative accounting”.
While revenues are increasing and losses are plateauing, DeepMind is still dependent on Google’s cloud infrastructure and financial resources. Alphabet pays DeepMind to apply its AI talent and research to Google’s services and infrastructure. Similarly, DeepMind has previously worked with Google. However, its future revenue remains uncertain. There are a few key questions to ask:
The company continues to hire hundreds of expensive researchers despite not producing any significant revenue. The company is currently locked in a costly war with Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook over artificial intelligence. The company has spent $483 million on its 700 employees and $14 million on academic donations. The company does not have any revenue to show for it. DeepMind is also not profitable compared to the other big tech companies.
In 2014, Alphabet acquired DeepMind for PS400 million. Now, it has paid off more than a billion pounds in debt. The company also provides expertise and product for other Alphabet projects, including autonomous cars for Waymo. However, this is still a general-purpose technology, which takes decades to develop fully. So, does DeepMind Make Money? Only time will tell. So, keep reading for a closer look.
This is an extremely high-profile company, and it has attracted the attention of many technology companies. The company employs some of the world’s leading AI researchers. Many of them have PhDs and command-annual salaries of $1 million. Big Tech companies are keen to hire them. DeepMind has a lot of money, but it is not yet making a profit. However, it does lose money, and it is largely losing money.
While there is no definitive reason as to why the revenue growth is suddenly so dramatic, it is worth mentioning that Alphabet is the largest shareholder in the company, making it one of the most profitable companies in the world. This is because Google generates 99 percent of the company’s revenue. But, despite the recent news, Alphabet is largely dependent on DeepMind’s technology, and it is the largest company within Alphabet.
AlphaGo Zero was designed by DeepMind in 2013 and cost $35 million. The energy it consumed was equivalent to the energy used by 12,760 human brains running non-stop for three days. DeepMind has also developed Neural Turing machines to learn video game play, much like human players do. However, how can the company make money when it relies on artificial intelligence? These machines are still very expensive to create, but it is possible that they’ll make money in the future.