Meta, Microsoft hire top AI talent from DeepMind

Meta has again stepped up efforts to hire top AI experts, reportedly bringing in three more researchers from Google DeepMind.

According to The Information, Tianhe Yu, Cosmo Du, and Weiyue Wang are the latest additions to Meta’s growing AI team.

The trio previously worked on a variant of Google’s Gemini model, which demonstrated gold-medal-level problem-solving capabilities at this year’s International Math Olympiad.

These new hires bring the total number of former Google employees now working at Meta to at least six, highlighting the company’s aggressive recruitment strategy in the AI space.

Microsoft taps DeepMind talent

Meanwhile, Microsoft has also made significant talent acquisitions from Google DeepMind. According to CNBC, around two dozen former DeepMind employees have joined Microsoft in recent months, expanding its AI division, which is led by DeepMind cofounder Mustafa Suleyman, who now reports directly to CEO Satya Nadella.

The latest hires include Amar Subramanya, a Google veteran of 16 years and former vice president (VP) of engineering, who worked on the Gemini assistant. On Tuesday, he announced on LinkedIn that he has joined Microsoft AI as a corporate VP.

Others who recently joined Microsoft’s AI group include:

• Sonal Gupta, a former engineering lead at Google DeepMind, who has joined Suleyman’s team as a technical staff member.
• Adam Sadovsky, previously a software engineer and senior director at DeepMind, with nearly 18 years at Google, who now serves as a corporate VP at Microsoft AI.
• Jonas Rothfuss, who spent a year at Google DeepMind as a research scientist. He joined Microsoft AI’s technical staff in May.

Competition for elite AI talent

The aggressive hiring among tech giants underscores the intense competition to secure top AI experts. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently claimed that Meta had offered signing bonuses of up to $100 million to lure away talent from his company. However, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated that the reported figures are “inaccurate”.

Meta’s hiring spree has also included high-profile names such as Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang and former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman, alongside numerous OpenAI researchers.

On the other hand, Google hired the CEO and team of AI coding startup Windsurf in a deal reportedly worth $2.4 billion.

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