Universities and startup factories are fuelling a rise in UK startups like Magic Pony, the AI business Twitter bought for 150 million

"Ex Machina" stars Oscar Isaac (left) and Domhnall Gleeson (right). The UK's AI scene is once again the talk of the town following the sale of Magic Pony Technology to Twitter for a reported 150 million ( 102 million). Evi was acquired by Amazon for a reported 18 million in 2013, DeepMind was bought by Google for around 400 million in 2014, VocalIQ was acquired by Apple for an unknown amount in 2015, and SwiftKey was bought by Microsoft for 175 million in 2016. The Oxbridge-London triangle is playing an important role in the creation of the UK's best AI companies, according to LocalGlobe investor Saul Klein. Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, and UCL all have deep expertise in applied mathematics, computer science, and machine learning.