Microsoft (MS) announced on the 19th (local time) that it has recruited Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of the artificial intelligence (AI) company DeepMind and also the founder and CEO of another AI startup, Inflation AI, to head its AI business.
According to MS’s disclosure, CEO Satya Nadella informed the employees on the same day that “Suleyman will join MS, leading Microsoft AI, an organization dedicated to the AI chatbot Copilot and other AI research and development.” Suleyman will serve as the Senior Vice President and chief officer of MS AI, reporting directly to CEO Nadella.
MS also decided to absorb most of the employees of Suleyman’s startup, Inflection, including AI scientist Karen Simonyan, a co-founder of Inflection. While MS did not specify the number of employees transitioning, it mentioned that “most of them have been critical to AI development over the past five years,” implying MS effectively absorbs Inflation.
FT analyzed this recruitment as part of MS’s investment focus on generative AI. Previously, MS invested $13 billion in OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, acquiring a 49% stake. Last month, MS also invested 15 million euros in the French startup Mistral AI, known as “Europe’s Open AI,” establishing a new partnership that will last for a multi-year. Inflation AI introduced the AI chatbot Pi, which focused on affinity with humans. Bill Gates, MS co-founder, had expressed a strong impression of some startups, including Inflation, at an AI-related event last May, predicting that companies developing AI personal assistants will be the winners.
Some suggest MS chose talent acquisition over mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to avoid regulation by the European Union (EU) competition authorities. After joining MS, Suleyman’s startup Inflation is known to pivot from the chatbot Pi project to focusing on corporate AI software sales. The EU competition authorities are investigating MS for potential antitrust law violations following its Open AI and Mistral AI investments.
Meanwhile, CEO Nadella emphasized this recruitment, “We are entering the second year of the AI platform transformation. We need to secure the capability to innovate boldly.” He added, “I have known Mustafa for years and greatly respect him as a founder and visionary of DeepMind and Inflation, a product maker, and a pioneer in organizing teams to pursue bold missions.”
Suleyman founded DeepMind alongside Demis Hassabis in 2010. He remained at Google after the company’s acquisition in 2014 and left in 2022.
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