Google acquired DeepMind Technologies, a British artificial intelligence company founded in September 2010 by Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman. The company has created a neural network that works similar to a human brain, and capable to play video games as well as a Neural Turing Machine.
The acquisition took place after Facebook was reported to end its negotiations with DeepMind.
After being acquired for $500 million, DeepMind Technologies was renamed to Google DeepMind. The company kept the name for two years before being renamed again to DeepMind Technologies. Together with other tech companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft, it's a member of Partnership on AI, an organization devoted to the society-AI interface.
The goal of the company is to "solve intelligence" by combining "the best techniques from machine learning and systems neuroscience to build powerful general-purpose learning algorithms." Not only to implement the algorithms to just machines, DeepMind also tries to formalize intelligence and to understand the human brain.
Investors to the company include major venture capital firms such as Horizons Ventures and Founders Fund. Other investors include Scott Banister, Elon Musk and Jaan Tallinn.
DeepMind is one of Google's largest European acquisitions. Before being acquired, DeepMind was reportedly able to compete with major AI companies including Google. Chief Executive Larry Page is said to have led the deal himself.