Microsoft Bolsters Copilot Team with High-Profile Hires from Google DeepMind

Microsoft has bolstered its artificial intelligence (AI) team by hiring around two dozen employees from Alphabet's Google DeepMind research lab over the past few months, according to a source familiar with the recruiting process who spoke to CNBC on condition of anonymity. On Tuesday, Amar Subramanya, a 16-year veteran of Google and former vice president of engineering involved in developing the Gemini assistant, announced on LinkedIn that he has joined Microsoft as a corporate vice president focused on AI. The Microsoft AI group, led by Mustafa Suleyman, is responsible for both consumer-facing projects like the Copilot assistant and the Bing search engine. In June, Adam Sadovsky, who spent nearly 18 years at Google and held a senior directive role at DeepMind, also moved to Microsoft, taking up a position as a corporate vice president in the AI division. Sonal Gupta, a former engineering lead at Google DeepMind, revealed earlier this month that she is now a member of the technical staff on Suleyman's team. Similarly, Jonas Rothfuss, a research scientist at Google DeepMind for a year, transitioned to a technical staff role at Microsoft AI in May. This influx of top talent underscores the intense competition among tech giants to secure skilled AI professionals. Last month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reported that Meta offered some of OpenAI's employees $100 million signing bonuses. Meta has been successful in its own recruitment efforts, including the recent hire of Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman. Google, meanwhile, has made its own significant moves in the AI space. It recently acquired AI coding startup Windsurf for $2.4 billion, bringing the startup's CEO and several employees into the fold. The leadership of Google DeepMind is now headed by another of its co-founders, Demis Hassabis, following the departure of Suleyman to Microsoft in 2022. Mustafa Suleyman, who co-founded DeepMind before Google's acquisition in 2014, now leads Microsoft's AI efforts and reports directly to CEO Satya Nadella. Suleyman brought several employees from his previous startup, Inflection, to Microsoft when he joined last year. This strategic approach to talent acquisition highlights Microsoft's commitment to advancing its AI capabilities and staying competitive in the rapidly evolving tech landscape. Amid these hiring moves, Microsoft announced earlier this month that it is laying off approximately 9,000 employees, representing less than 4% of its global workforce. Despite this reduction, the company continues to prioritize AI as a core area of focus, investing heavily in talent and technology to enhance products like Copilot and Bing.