2021 BRN Discussion, page-14429

Another cracker from the AFR...you don't get more one sided reporting than this
BrainChip’s founder takes chips off the table (copyright link)

BrainChip’s founder takes chips off the tableTom RichardsonMarkets reporter and commentatorJun 29, 2021 – 5.00amSaveShareArtificial intelligence business BrainChip is such a favourite of retail investors its valuation sat at $878 million on Monday, although plenty believe it’s wildly overvalued given the lack of revenue and commercial products.Disclosures show its interim chief executive and founder, Peter Van Der Made, took the opposite approach to retail investors last week, selling 2.57 million shares on-market at an average price of 54¢ for cash proceeds of $1.39 million. Van Der Made has another 173.7 million shares where they came from.Cashing in his chips: BrainChip co-founder Peter Van Der Made. The business lost its last permanent chief executive in March, when Louis DiNardo had his role terminated with immediate effect. DiNardo left with 11.8 million shares and 57.5 million share options exercisable at different dates into the future at prices no higher than 22.5¢, although it’s unknown whether he’s been selling shares like his replacement.On April 30, another substantial shareholder named as the family trust for Anil Shamrao Mankar and Meena Anil Mankar sold down its stake from 7.2 per cent to 6.1 per cent. It was only in December that the same California-based family trust sold its stake down from 15.1 per cent to 7.2 per cent.Amid all the selling, BrainChip boasts it is on track to deliver a revolutionary new edge-computing chip so smart that it can mimic the human brain’s processing. According to the company, this means it’s competing with the likes of Intel, IBM and Nvidia at the same time as retail investors promote its potential on forums such as Reddit and Facebook.All this potential, but it can’t even attract a new permanent chief executive at the same time as the founder sells.