Microsoft Technology Group Recruits Over 20 AI Personnel in the Past Six Months, Including Former Gemini Chatbot Technical Director.
Microsoft has intensified its AI talent recruitment strategy by hiring over 20 experts from Google's DeepMind in the past six months, increasing tension in the talent hunt among major technology corporations. The latest recruitment includes Amar Subramanya, former technical director of the Gemini chatbot, who confirmed joining Microsoft with the role of Corporate Vice President in charge of AI.
Subramanya joins the expanding group of former DeepMind personnel at Microsoft, including Sonal Gupta, Adam Sadovsky, and Tim Frank. According to close sources, at least 24 AI experts from DeepMind have transferred to Microsoft since the beginning of 2025, reflecting a core talent recruitment strategy as Big Tech corporations compete fiercely in developing general artificial intelligence.
AI personnel recruitment at Microsoft is led by Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind co-founder, who joined Microsoft in March after the company acquired most personnel and intellectual property from AI startup Inflection for $650 million. Under Suleyman's leadership, Microsoft is making a big bet on surpassing Google and Meta in the next generation of intelligent assistants and consumer AI applications.
The fierce competition for AI personnel has pushed compensation levels to unprecedented heights. Top AI researchers can now receive total compensation of 10-20 million USD annually, comparable to star athletes. Meta is reportedly offering contract bonuses up to 100 million USD to attract programmers from rival laboratories, which prompted Sam Altman of OpenAI to criticize recruitment strategies as "money-driven".
Pressure on Google and Countermeasures
The departure of Subramanya, along with Mat Velloso – who currently leads Gemini's technical team and has moved to Meta – has forced Google to restructure its AI leadership team. Google is under pressure to retain top engineers amid falling behind OpenAI and Anthropic in public acceptance of Gemini, which is considered less attractive than ChatGPT with hundreds of millions of monthly users.
Google affirms that the resignation rate at DeepMind remains below the industry Medium and they have also recruited an equivalent number of AI personnel from competitors. However, according to Business Insider, DeepMind has quietly tightened competitive binding clauses for key personnel, prohibiting employees from joining competing companies for up to 12 months.
Legal experts believe this measure may not comply with US labor laws, especially in California where non-compete clauses are invalid. The academic community is also concerned that this could hinder collaboration in the AI research community.
The wave of talent moving to Microsoft, Meta, and OpenAI may reflect deeper issues of organizational culture, strategic vision, or operational capabilities in Google's AI division. While still dominating search and advertising, Google is considered slow in commercializing foundational research into breakthrough products, creating opportunities for competitors to overtake in the AI race.
