Microsoft is opening a new AI unit in London, moving into the territory of its biggest AI rival: Google DeepMind.
This announcement comes just weeks after Microsoft hired Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, to lead its new AI division. In a blog post published Monday, Suleyman said the new London unit would be led by Jordan Huffman, a former DeepMind researcher.
Microsoft already has offices in the British capital and has committed to investing £2.5 billion in UK data centers over the next three years. But the fact that this new hub is entirely focused on AI – and is run by former DeepMinders – should give Google plenty of reason to worry. In the battle to attract top AI talent, a bigger presence in London could be a smart move for Microsoft.
“There is a huge pool of AI talent and expertise in the UK, and Microsoft AI plans to make a significant long-term investment in the region as we begin to hire the best AI scientists and engineers in this new AI hub,” Suleyman wrote. in Monday’s announcement.
DeepMind, founded in 2010 and acquired by Google in 2014, has long been considered the jewel of the UK AI scene. It has also become an increasingly vital asset for Google, which for many years allowed the AI subsidiary to operate independently.
Last year, in response to growing pressure from competitors such as OpenAI, Google merged DeepMind with its Brain AI core unit, forming the new Google DeepMind.
Google DeepMind, which has more than 2,000 employees, is leading work on Gemini, the company’s answer to OpenAI’s large GPT-4 language model, making it a crucial part of Google’s technology strategy. ‘artificial intelligence.
But as rivals such as Meta and Microsoft try to bolster their artificial intelligence units with more resources and talent, they are trying to poach some of Google’s most prized researchers, with compensation reports of $10 million . Meta itself recently lost three top AI employees, while Google has lost a steady stream of employees to OpenAI over the past year.
Startups are also starting to pay more for early hires to compete with big tech’s offerings, Alex Libre, co-founder and lead recruiter of Einstellen Talent, recently told BI’s Aaron Mok.
Google DeepMind has tried to retain talent by offering higher pay to some employees, according to people familiar with the matter. In one case, Google co-founder Sergey Brin called a DeepMind researcher who was preparing to leave OpenAI and convinced him to stay.
As the Big Tech AI arms race for talent continues to heat up, Google may have to work even harder to stem the bleeding.
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