DeepMind and Alphabet: who needs markets?

DeepMind, the artificial intelligence company founded in 2010 by Demis Hassabis, Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman, and acquired by Alphabet in 2014 for $650 million, has published its financial results, revealing what might be politely called a “creative accounting” issue.

In principle, it all sounds very promising: after a few years, DeepMind is now apparently profitable, with revenues of…