European firms engage in fierce battle for AI talent

An influx of artificial intelligence startups is heating the battle for technical talent in Europe, leaving companies like Google DeepMind to choose between paying big or losing out on the region’s best minds.

 

The runaway success of OpenAI’s ChatGPT has energized investors, who have been pouring money into promising AI startups, eager to uncover the subsequent overnight success.

 

Riding the investment wave, a crop of foreign AI firms, including Canada’s Cohere and U.S.-based Anthropic and OpenAI, opened offices in Europe last year, adding pressure on tech companies already trying to attract and retain talent.

 

Founded in 2010 and acquired by Google in 2014, London-based DeepMind applied AI to everything from board games to structural biology.

 

The firm faces many well-funded rivals flooding its territory, and many employees have quit to launch their ventures.

 

Recent high-profile exits include co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, who left to set up California-based Inflection AI alongside LinkedIn billionaire Reid Hoffman, and research scientist Arthur Mensch, now CEO of Mistral AI. Both companies have received multi-billion dollar valuations in the short time they have been active.

 

According to a source familiar with the matter, DeepMind gave a handful of senior researchers access to restricted stock worth millions of dollars earlier this year in an apparent effort to discourage staff from joining other companies or starting their own.

 

“It’s a competitive space for sure,” a DeepMind spokesperson told Reuters, adding that the company “continues to do well in attracting and nurturing talent.”

Source: Reuters