The DeepMind trio who built a poker AI are now making money for quant hedge funds

Three former DeepMind researchers, Martin Schmid, Rudolf Kadlec and Matej Moravcik, spent their PhDs building DeepStack, the first AI to beat professional players at no limit Texas hold'em poker. Their Prague based startup, EquiLibre Technologies, has just raised a Series A led by Creandum at a $500 million valuation, up from $140 million a year earlier. The same reinforcement learning approach that once bluffed professional poker players now trades billions of dollars a day across the S&P 500 and Nasdaq, working alongside quant firm Tower Research Capital.

What actually happened with this poker AI story?

A team that built a game playing AI at DeepMind's Edmonton office turned that research into a trading company, and investors now value it at $500 million. EquiLibre says its algorithms have had zero negative months since going live on crypto markets in 2025, before expanding into equities. The company employs around 25 people and is building one of Central and Eastern Europe's largest compute clusters.

Why should a small business owner in the UK care about a quant trading startup?

Not because you should trade like a hedge fund. It matters because it is a clear signal of how fast AI capability moves from research lab to real money, and how little of that gap is visible to the average business owner until it lands on their doorstep. Three years ago this was an academic poker demo. Now it is managing billions daily.

The same pattern is playing out at a smaller scale in high streets across Britain. AI tools that write your Google Business Profile posts, answer your phone, or chase up old customers were niche a year ago. They are now standard kit for competitors who have already switched on.

Are UK small businesses actually using AI yet, or is this still hype?

Adoption is real and accelerating fast. According to the British Chambers of Commerce and Atos, 54% of UK small businesses were using AI in some form in 2026, up from 35% in 2025 and just 25% in 2024. That is a near doubling in two years.

But adoption is not the same as results. Among UK SMEs already using AI, 46% say they still lack the knowledge to use it properly, and only 12% have actually seen a revenue increase, despite 71% expecting a productivity gain. Most businesses are switching AI on without a plan for what it should change first.

What should a local business actually do differently because of this?

Stop treating AI as a bolt on feature and start treating your online infrastructure as the thing AI reads from. EquiLibre's algorithms only make money because they are trained on huge, clean, structured data. Your business is judged the same way, just at a smaller scale, by Google, ChatGPT and Gemini when a customer asks "who's a good plumber near me".

• Make sure your Google Business Profile is verified, complete and updated weekly, not left dormant. We have seen a Leeds salon go from zero online presence to 40+ monthly calls from Google Maps within three weeks of doing exactly this.
• Replace static content (PDF menus, Linktree pages) with a real, structured website. A Manchester restaurant saw online orders rise 34% within four weeks of swapping a PDF menu for a live web menu.
• Own your booking and customer data instead of renting it from a platform that can change its terms or fees overnight.

Does it matter if AI assistants recommend my business, not just Google search?

Yes, and this is the part most local businesses are missing entirely. Being recommended by ChatGPT, Gemini or Google AI Overviews when someone asks for a recommendation is becoming the new local SEO, and it rewards businesses with clear, structured, first party information, not businesses hiding inside a Facebook page or a Linktree bio.

What's Braynex Services' view on all this?

The lesson from a poker AI now trading billions is not "AI is coming for finance too". It is that the businesses winning are the ones that own clean, structured data about themselves, and the ones losing are still renting their presence from someone else.

We see this constantly with local businesses. A nail salon paying Fresha roughly £1,800 a month in commission moved to its own booking system at £35 a month, saving around £21,000 a year, simply by owning the infrastructure instead of renting it. A plumber spending £280 a month on Yell for three leads switched to a Google Business Profile plus a small £120 a month Google Ads campaign, and now gets 18 to 22 enquiries a month. Same principle EquiLibre is proving at a vastly larger scale: own the system, don't rent it.

If you want a clear, honest picture of where your business is leaking calls, customers or money to rented platforms, Braynex Services offers a free audit. Book yours at braynexservices.com.