Google was not spared by this year’s AI talent wars.
The Gemini creator lost employees from its AI and cloud business, even though the company also made significant hires from other Big Tech companies.
Unlike Apple, which mostly lost AI talent to Meta, which splurged big on recruitment this year, most significant departures from Google ended up at Microsoft.
Google DeepMind’s rivalry with Microsoft’s AI unit is one between two DeepMind cofounders who parted ways. Mustafa Suleyman, now steering Microsoft’s consumer AI push, and Demis Hassabis, the current CEO of Google DeepMind, launched DeepMind alongside researcher Shane Legg in 2010. They built a research lab so influential that Google bought it for more than $500 million in 2014.
But a decade later, Suleyman departed Google and founded Inflection AI. He and most of his team were subsequently absorbed by Microsoft in a $650 million “acqui-hire,” which made him the AI lead of the company.
The competition for AI recruitment continues to intensify as hiring cools in the Big Tech job market. Here’s a running list of the AI talent Google has lost this year and where they’ve ended up.
Engineers and scientists
Amar Subramanya
In July, Subramanya left his position as vice president of engineering at Google to join Microsoft as its corporate vice president of AI. He had been with Google for more than 15 years. In December, it was announced that he was joining Apple.
Adam Sadovsky
Sadovsky was a distinguished software engineer and senior director at Google for nearly 18 years before joining Microsoft as the corporate vice president of its AI division in June.
Sonal Gupta
Gupta was a principal engineer at Google DeepMind before leaving for a position as technical staff on Microsoft’s AI team. Prior to Google, Gupta also worked for Meta.
Steve Regini
The former head of global customers engineering at Google left the company. Regini is now the senior vice president of the global solutions engineering unit at SentinelOne, which is a cybersecurity company that provides an AI-powered platform for enterprise security.
Jonas Rothfuss
Rothfuss was a research scientist at Google DeepMind before leaving in May to join Microsoft as a member of technical staff on the company’s AI team.
Management and executives
Albert Lee
Lee was the senior director of corporate development for Google Cloud and DeepMind. He is widely credited for assisting with Google’s high-profile acquisitions, including the $32 billion purchase of the cloud security startup Wiz in March. In December, Lee left for OpenAI as its new vice president of corporate development.
Tim Frank
Frank was a senior director of product management at Google, who was responsible for advertiser and customer engagement platforms. He joined Microsoft as the corporate vice president of AI monetization.
Sunil Potti
Potti was the general manager of Google Cloud’s security business for more than five years. He left in June and later joined a venture capitalist firm as a partner with a focus on cybersecurity.
Brian Hall
In 2020, Hall made headlines after Amazon sued him for leaving his role as vice president of product marketing at Amazon to join Google. In September, Hall left his position as vice president of products for an undisclosed role, but wrote in a post on LinkedIn that he will be “working in AI.”
Dave Citron
Citron, a former senior director of product at Google DeepMind, joined Microsoft in August as corporate vice president of its AI group. In a LinkedIn post announcing his new role, he wrote that he is “energized by Microsoft AI’s pace, principles, and product craft.”
Warren Barkley
In August, Barkley left as the head of product at Google Cloud to become the vice president of product management at Nvidia.
