The AI Talent War: Microsoft Hires DeepMind AI Engineers
The competition within the US tech sector is intensifying, fuelled by the demand for AI expertise.
In recent months, a fervent race to recruit skilled AI engineers has reached critical levels, with many executives and AI specialists moving to rival firms.
Major AI players such as Meta, OpenAI, Apple and Amazon have been actively seeking to attract talent either from each other or from emerging AI startups.
Among the latest to feel the impact of this trend is DeepMind by Google, from which Microsoft has successfully recruited over 20 AI experts to support its Copilot strategy.
Amar Subramanya, the former Head of Engineering for Google’s Gemini chatbot, announced his move to Microsoft as Corporate Vice President of AI.
“The culture here is refreshingly low-ego yet bursting with ambition,” Amar, who is the most senior DeepMind executive to join Microsoft’s ranks, shared in a LinkedIn post.
Alongside Amar, Microsoft has also brought in Engineering Lead Sonal Gupta, Software Engineer Adam Sadovsky and Product Manager Tim Frank as part of its strategic hiring efforts.
In the past six months, Microsoft has attracted at least 24 team members from DeepMind to join its ranks.
Strategic “acqui-hiring"
Microsoft’s proactive recruitment follows its acquisition of most staff from AI start-up Inflection earlier this year, in a deal that also brought Co-Founder Mustafa Suleyman, now spearheading its consumer AI strategy.
The US$650m transaction exemplifies a “reverse acqui-hire"—a growing strategy where tech firms secure key personnel and intellectual assets without fully acquiring companies.
Mustafa’s inclusion has intensified Microsoft and Google's rivalry, particularly given his prior ties with DeepMind Co-Founder Sir Demis Hassabis.
Late last year, Mustafa brought in Dominic King and Christopher Kelly from DeepMind to launch Microsoft’s AI health unit, which boasts a medical diagnostic system reportedly outperforming human doctors fourfold in complex cases.
Industry-wide talent competition
The aggressive hiring tactics underscore broader industry competition, as companies offer substantial compensation packages to attract top AI researchers.
Meta has reportedly offered signing bonuses as high as US$100m to lure OpenAI staff, drawing criticism from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman regarding what he calls “mercenary" behaviour in the industry after losing at least 10 key employees recently.
“A few companies control a major portion of the market and focus—rather than on innovation—on attempting to buy out everybody else’s talent,” remarks Senator Ron Wyden to the Associated Press.
Three Senators have urged antitrust authorities to scrutinize how tech giants are consolidating AI market control through these aggressive recruitment strategies.
Market dynamics underlying aggressive tactics
The financial implications of AI development help explain the intensity observed in recruitment strategies.
Building AI systems demands costly computer chips, power-intensive data centres, and highly skilled specialists—resources smaller companies struggle to match, further emphasising larger firms’ market prowess.
“They may have decided that they have no real future and just don’t have deep enough pockets to compete in this arena,” highlights MIT Business Professor Michael Cusumano, referencing smaller companies’ precarious position.
Recent court data revealed Microsoft’s internal projections show ChatGPT boasts at least 600m monthly users, while Gemini follows with 400m users.
Google’s strategy amid talent departure
The departure of personnel has prompted internal restructuring within Google’s AI division, striving to retain its remaining top talent.
Another DeepMind defector, Mat Velloso, has joined Meta’s new 'superintelligence' team, which aims to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Google asserts that DeepMind’s attrition rates are below industry averages, continuing its strategy of recruiting similar numbers of researchers from Microsoft and other competitors.
“We are thrilled to attract the world’s leading AI talent, including researchers and engineers from rival labs,” assured a Google spokesperson.
Microsoft opted not to comment on its recruitment approach.
