Robinhood has acquired AI-powered investment research platform Pluto Capital for an undisclosed amount.

According to a July 1 statement, the purchase would allow Robinhood users to access several features, including enhanced data analysis, personalized investment strategies, real-time insights, and portfolio management.

Under the deal, Pluto Founder and CEO Jacob Sansbury will join Robinhood to accelerate its integration of AI-powered capabilities. Sansbury is the youngest engineer ever hired at Bridgewater and led game developer SDK tools at NVIDIA’s GeForce Now cloud gaming service.

Mayank Agarwal, VP of Engineering, said:

“[Pluto] has built an impressive platform that is highly regarded in the financial services industry. Importantly, their expertise in artificial intelligence coupled with a mission-aligned passion to democratize finance will complement our team’s effort to bring AI powered tools to our customers.”

Notably, this acquisition comes amid Robinhood’s international expansion efforts. Last month, the platform announced the acquisition of Bitstamp, a European exchange, as part of its global growth plan.

AI becoming increasingly important tool in finance

Over the past year, several top companies have integrated AI into their products and services. Market observers attributed this rise to the proliferation of Generative AI tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, allowing human-like interactions on their platforms.

Deloitte’s 2024 Financial Services Industry Predictions highlight the substantial impact of this technology on the financial sector over the next three to five years.

The firm forecasts that GenAI-enabled applications will dominate the retail investment advice space. They predict usage will rise from its current nascent stage to 78% by 2028, potentially becoming the leading source of retail investment advice by 2027.

However, the report also warns that this technology will increase the spread of hyper-realistic fake content. This could escalate fraud losses in the US to $40 billion by 2027, up from $12.3 billion in 2023.

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