Brainchip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) has been placed in a trading halt as the company attempts to raise capital.
The Brainchip share price surged last week, going from 17 cents on Monday to close on Friday at 24 cents, representing a gain of about 41%.
Shares in the company, which is attempting to crack the artificial intelligence market, took off last week as it announced it sent its first BrainChip Accelerator, to be used in the development of autonomous vehicles, to a "major European car maker" for evaluation.
Brainchip, in addition to developing software to be used in self-driving cars, provides software and hardware solutions that cater for civil surveillance, gaming, facial recognition and visual inspection systems.
Brainchip also announced last week that it will take part in Milipol Paris, a major French homeland security conference.
The tech company's Vice President for European Business Development, Hung Do-Duy, said the French National Police and Rockwell Collins, which will share an exhibit with Brainchip at the conference, have confirmed artificial intelligence can now transform the speed and accuracy of video surveillance systems.
"It's a privilege to have a joint presence at Milipol with these organisations, both of which share our passion for embracing innovative technologies to make the world a safer place," he said.
Brainchip's technology is embedded into Rockwell Collins' Perimeter Surveillance Radar system (PSR), according to Brainchip.
"PSR is a high-resolution compact radar system that tracks and records intrusions in all weather conditions," Brainchip stated.
"Brainchip's AI-powered technology enables the system to detect and identify human bodies, significantly reducing false alarms caused by plant or animal motion."
BrainChip requested that the trading halt continue until it makes an announcement in relation to the outcome of the capital raising or the commencement of trading on Tuesday.
In late May, Brainchip raised $6 million through a private placement. The company's share price shed about 25% of its value in the two weeks following the announcement.
Despite the recent gains in the Brainchip share price, it's still trading well below the 35 cent mark it hit on January 18 this year.
Before that, the share price of the speculative stock surged during December 2016 and January this year as two articles published by the Australian Financial Review, owned by Farifax Media Limited (ASX: FXJ), stated Brainchip was "poised to unveil a range of new clients" and was seeking a new listing in the United States.
Brainchip subsequently requested trading halts as it sought to correct the articles and stated that it never told the newspaper it was "poised to unveil a range of new clients" nor was it seeking a new listing in the United States.
Concerning the latest trading halt, The Australian newspaper, owned by News Corp (ASX: NWS), has reported that Brainchip is attempting to raise $21.5 million.
For FY17, Brainchip, with a market cap of $208 million, reported a loss of US$5,816,603, up by about 180% on the previous year.
