BrainChip (ASX:BRN) share price crashes a further 20% lower: Where next for its shares?

The BrainChip Holdings Ltd (ASX: BRN) share price has come under pressure again on Wednesday.

At one stage in morning trade the artificial intelligence technology company's shares dropped as much as 20% to 39 cents.

The BrainChip share price has recovered a good portion of these declines now but is still down a sizeable 11% to 43.5 cents.

This is over 55% lower than the record high of 97 cents that its shares hit last week.

A fall from grace.

It certainly has been a fall from grace for the BrainChip share price in recent days.

Investors were fighting to get hold of the company's shares this month after it announced a collaboration with VORAGO Technologies at the start of September.

This collaboration is intended to support a Phase I NASA program for a neuromorphic processor that meets spaceflight requirements. Management believes its Akida neuromorphic processor is uniquely suited for spaceflight and aerospace applications. This is because the device is a complete neural processor and does not require an external CPU, memory, or Deep Learning Accelerator.

While potentially working with NASA would be a great achievement, it's still a long way from happening.

With the Phase I program, NASA invites companies to provide "concept of operations of the research topic, simulations and preliminary results. Early development and delivery of prototype hardware/software is encouraged."

After which, a working prototype will be required in phase 2.

NASA explains: "Phase II deliverables include a working prototype of the proposed product and/or software, along with documentation and tools necessary for NASA to use the product and/or modify and use the software. Hardware products should include both layout and simulation."

Clearly, there's still a lot of work ahead for BrainChip and VORAGO. In light of this, I don't believe this news warranted its shares rocketing higher and taking its market capitalisation well beyond $1 billion.

Where next for the BrainChip share price?

Barring some extraordinary developments, I think it is very unlikely we'll see the BrainChip share price back at its previous highs any time soon (if ever).

As a result, I would suggest investors skip speculative shares like this and consider profitable tech companies such as Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) and Appen Ltd (ASX: APX).