DeepMind engineers join Microsoft’s AI team

These hires will contribute to Microsoft Copilot, Bing, and Edge under the leadership of Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind’s co‑founder.
Microsoft DeepMind hires, AI talent war, Copilot AI team, Mustafa Suleyman leadership, DeepMind defections, AI engineering recruitment, UK CMA investigation, consumer AI expansion, AI layoffs pivot, Inflection AI hires

Microsoft has aggressively expanded its AI workforce by hiring over 20 specialists from Google’s DeepMind research lab in recent months. Notable recruits, now part of Microsoft AI under EVP Mustafa Suleyman, include former DeepMind engineering head Amar Subramanya, product managers and research scientists such as Sonal Gupta, Adam Sadovsky, Tim Frank, Dominic King, and Christopher Kelly.

This talent influx aligns with Suleyman’s leadership of Microsoft’s consumer AI division, which is responsible for Copilot, Bing, and Edge, and underscores the company’s push to solidify its lead in personal AI experiences. Meanwhile, this hiring effort unfolds against a backdrop of 9,000 layoffs globally, highlighting Microsoft’s strategy to redeploy resources toward AI innovation.

However, regulators are scrutinising the move. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority has launched a review into whether Microsoft’s hiring of Inflection AI and DeepMind employees might reduce market competition. Microsoft maintains that its practice fosters, rather than limits, industry advancement.

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