Microsoft Acquires Talent from Google DeepMind

Microsoft has made headlines by recently recruiting around two dozen employees from Alphabet’s Google DeepMind artificial intelligence research lab. This strategic move aims to strengthen Microsoft’s AI initiatives and further develop its consumer-oriented Copilot assistant and Bing search engine.

Among the notable hires is Amar Subramanya, who spent 16 years at Google, where he most recently held the position of vice president of engineering overseeing the Gemini assistant. Subramanya announced his transition to Microsoft AI as a corporate vice president on LinkedIn.

Another significant addition is Adam Sadovsky, who accumulated nearly 18 years of expertise at Google, finishing as a distinguished software engineer and senior director at DeepMind. He has since taken on the role of corporate vice president at Microsoft AI.

Recently, Sonal Gupta, a former engineering lead at Google DeepMind, stated on her LinkedIn that she joined the technical staff on Mustafa Suleyman’s team at Microsoft AI. Additionally, Jonas Rothfuss transitioned to Microsoft AI in May after previous experience as a research scientist at Google DeepMind.

This influx of talent aligns with a broader trend of tech giants aggressively pursuing AI experts. For instance, OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman revealed that Meta has offered employees $100 million signing bonuses to entice them away from the startup. Meta also successfully hired Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.

Meanwhile, Google has been actively expanding its team by bringing on the CEO and other employees from the AI coding startup Windsurf through a $2.4 billion acquisition deal.

Microsoft’s latest hires will contribute to the AI group led by Suleyman, who directly reports to CEO Satya Nadella. Suleyman, a co-founder of DeepMind, previously left Google to lead AI startup Inflection in 2022 before becoming an executive at Microsoft last year, bringing several members from Inflection along with him. Presently, Demis Hassabis, another co-founder of DeepMind, leads the Google DeepMind lab.

It’s noteworthy that earlier this month, Microsoft announced layoffs affecting around 9,000 employees—a reduction representing less than 4% of its global workforce. Despite these challenges, the company is pushing forward in solidifying its AI capabilities and competing robustly in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.

WATCH: Microsoft Copilot heralds a seismic shift in AI integration, according to Microsoft AI CEO Suleyman.