Three researchers who helped create one of poker’s most influential artificial intelligence programs have found success far beyond the felt.
The team behind DeepStack, the groundbreaking AI that became the first program to defeat professional players in heads-up no-limit Texas Hold’em, has built a new company now valued at $500 million after applying similar technology to financial markets.
Prague-based EquiLibre Technologies recently completed a Series A funding round led by venture capital firm Creandum. While the investment amount remains undisclosed, the company confirmed the funding values EquiLibre at half a billion dollars, highlighting growing investor confidence in reinforcement learning beyond gaming.
From Beating Poker Pros to Trading Billions
EquiLibre was founded by Martin Schmid, Rudolf Kadlec, and Matej Moravcik, three former DeepMind researchers whose work on DeepStack changed how the poker world viewed artificial intelligence.
Released in 2017, DeepStack became the first AI system to consistently defeat professional poker players in heads-up no-limit Texas Hold’em, solving one of the most complex imperfect-information games ever tackled by AI. Unlike chess or Go, poker requires players to make decisions without knowing every piece of information available to opponents, making bluffing, uncertainty, and probability central to success.
Those same challenges exist in financial markets.
Rather than reading opponents across a poker table, EquiLibre’s AI now analyzes market conditions, learning through experience and constantly adapting its strategy in pursuit of profitable trades.
Reinforcement Learning Drives the Strategy
The technology behind both DeepStack and EquiLibre relies heavily on reinforcement learning, where AI agents improve by repeatedly making decisions, measuring outcomes, and refining future actions based on rewards.
According to Schmid, financial markets provide an ideal environment because success is easy to measure.
“If the system makes money, it’s performing well.”
That straightforward feedback allows AI models to continuously optimize their decisions in much the same way DeepStack refined its poker strategy through millions of simulated hands.
Already Trading Real Markets
EquiLibre isn’t operating in theory.
The company says its AI is already trading billions of dollars in daily volume through a partnership with quantitative trading firm Tower Research Capital, covering both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq markets.
Before expanding into equities, the algorithms were deployed in cryptocurrency markets during 2025. EquiLibre claims its trading systems have yet to record a losing month since they began operating.
While those results have not been independently verified, they have clearly attracted investor attention.
Staying True to Research
Despite entering one of the world’s most competitive financial industries, EquiLibre says it still considers itself an AI research laboratory first and a trading company second.
Schmid has repeatedly emphasized that building new AI systems, rather than becoming a traditional hedge fund, remains the company’s long-term focus.
That philosophy appears to have resonated with investors, who see reinforcement learning becoming increasingly important across finance, robotics, and autonomous decision-making.
Poker’s Lasting Impact on AI
DeepStack remains one of poker’s biggest contributions to artificial intelligence research.
Its success demonstrated that AI could master games built around hidden information rather than perfect knowledge, opening the door for advances in negotiation systems, financial modeling, cybersecurity, and autonomous decision-making.
For poker players, DeepStack represented a milestone that forever changed strategy discussions and AI training tools.
Nearly a decade later, the researchers behind that achievement are applying many of the same concepts to markets worth trillions of dollars.
Their journey highlights how innovations first developed to solve complex poker decisions are now influencing industries far removed from the game itself.
If EquiLibre continues its rapid growth, the next major victory for the creators of one of poker’s most famous AI programs may come not at the tables, but on Wall Street.
