Microsoft vs Google: The Latest Case of AI Talent Poaching
There’s a war going on at the heart of the US tech sector.
Rivalries have always been fierce between the industry’s biggest players, but tensions have never been quite as high as they are today.
The reason, quite simply, is AI.
Over the past few months, an arms race for talented AI engineers has reached boiling point, with dozens of executives and computer scientists jumping ship to join their competitors.
Meta, OpenAI, Apple, Amazon and many more of the US’s top AI companies have sought to poach talent either from one another, or from promising AI start-ups.
The latest victim of this trend is Google’s DeepMind, from which Microsoft has recruited more than 20 AI specialists in an effort to boost the capabilities of its Copilot technology.
Amar Subramanya, former Head of Engineering for Google's Gemini chatbot, confirmed his move to Microsoft as Corporate Vice President of AI this week
"The culture here is refreshingly low-ego yet bursting with ambition," Amar, who is the most senior DeepMind executive to join Microsoft's ranks, wrote in a post on LinkedIn.
Microsoft’s recruitment swoop has also secured the services of Engineering Lead Sonal Gupta, Software Engineer Adam Sadovsky and Product Manager Tim Frank, according to sources familiar with Microsoft's hiring strategy.
The Redmond-based company has successfully persuaded at least 24 DeepMind staff to switch sides over the past six months.
A pattern of ‘acqui-hiring’
Microsoft's aggressive recruitment strategy follows its March acquisition of most staff from AI start-up Inflection in a deal which also secured the services of its Co-Founder Mustafa Suleyman, who now leads the company's consumer AI strategy.
The US$650m deal represented what has recently become known as a "reverse acqui-hire" — a growing trend that sees tech giants absorb key personnel and intellectual property without formally acquiring entire companies.
Mustafa's appointment has intensified the rivalry between Microsoft and Google, particularly given his former partnership with DeepMind Co-Founder Sir Demis Hassabis.
Late last year, Mustafa recruited Dominic King and Christopher Kelly from DeepMind to establish Microsoft's new AI health unit, which claims its medical diagnostic system outperforms human doctors four times over in complex cases.
The industry-wide talent war intensifies
The poaching campaign reflects broader competition across the technology sector, with companies offering unprecedented compensation packages to secure top AI researchers.
Meta has reportedly offered US$100m signing bonuses to attract OpenAI staff, prompting criticism from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about "mercenary" behaviour in the industry, following the loss of at least 10 key employees in recent months.
"A few companies control a major portion of the market, and just concentrate — rather than on innovation — trying to buy out everybody else's talent," Democratic Senator Ron Wyden told the Associated Press in June.
Three US senators have urged antitrust authorities to investigate how tech giants are consolidating AI market dominance through these recruitment arrangements.
Market dynamics drive aggressive tactics
The financial stakes behind AI development explain the intensity of recruitment battles.
Building competitive AI systems requires expensive computer chips, power-intensive data centres and highly skilled specialists â resources that smaller companies struggle to match, manufacturing superiority in the market.
"They may have made a decision that they have no real future and just don't have deep enough pockets to compete in this space," says MIT Business Professor Michael Cusumano, referring to the vulnerability of smaller firms.
Recent court filings revealed Google's internal estimates show ChatGPT has at least 600 million monthly users, while Gemini trails with 400 million users.
Google responds to talent drain
The departures triggered internal restructuring at Google's AI wing as the company attempts to retain its remaining talent.
Mat Velloso, another DeepMind departure, joined Meta's new ‘superintelligence’ team tasked with developing artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Google maintains that DeepMind's attrition rates remain below industry averages, with the company poaching similar numbers of researchers from Microsoft and other competitors.
"We are excited that we are able to attract the world's leading AI talent, including researchers and engineers who come from rival labs," a Google spokesperson said.
Microsoft declined to comment on the recruitment campaign.
