GOOG
Another talent grab in the AI cage match
Google keeps acting less like a search company and more like a startup with a very expensive credit card. This time, Alphabet absorbed key Mechanize AI talent into DeepMind, including co-founder and former CEO Tamay Besiroglu, who’s now a research scientist there.
Why this matters
The deal reportedly brings in more than a dozen ex-Mechanize employees, many focused on “midtraining” — basically the messy middle of building better chatbots. If you’re trying to win the AI race, that’s the kind of behind-the-scenes work that can quietly move the needle on coding tools and model quality.
The bigger pattern
This fits Alphabet’s new playbook:
- pay up for AI people when you can’t just buy time
- fold them into DeepMind
- use the talent to sharpen products like coding assistants and chatbots
It also follows Google’s other pricey talent moves, including the Windsurf deal and its earlier Contextual AI hiring spree. Big picture: the AI arms race isn’t just about chips and data centers anymore. It’s also a very expensive game of musical chairs, and Google wants the best seats.