From 1992 to 2001, Dan Goldin served as the longest-tenured administrator of NASA, overseeing projects like the launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavor and the redesign of the International Space Station.

After leaving NASA, Goldin spent some time bouncing around and studying robotics before accepting a position as the president of Boston University in 2003. He never officially held the position, however, because the school terminated his contract a day before he was slated to start (though he still got a $1.8 million payout).

And then Goldin mostly vanished from the public eye for over 10 years.

Today, the 75-year-old Goldin has reemerged to reveal what he has been working on for the past decade: KnuEdge, a top-secret startup based in San Diego, with a mission to one-up Google, AMD, and Intel with the "fundamental invention" of the next-generation computer processor.

"I'm not an incrementalist — I wanted to wait for the grand slam," Goldin tells Business Insider.

KnuEdge is also releasing its first product to the broader business technology market: KnuVerse, an artificial-intelligence-assisted tool that helps identify and clarify voices, even in the noisiest of situations. With that foothold established in the market, Goldin hopes that KnuEdge will come to be the foremost provider of technology for the neural-network-powered artificial brains of the future.

"We don't want to be on the football field," Goldin says. "I want to define where the football field is."