TREE NEWS reports: At least 15 Google DeepMind staff and alumni met for breakfast in central London in September, with talk turning to how to fund an AI startup, as several former employees including Nando de Freitas and David Silva have founded their own companies and sought investor backing, some targeting hundreds of millions of dollars. The departures come as DeepMind shifts its AI power center from London to California, with some ex-staff citing a forced pivot to large language models as a reason for leaving.
DeepMind Staff Departures Draw VC Interest in New AI Startups
AI take
The notable signal here is not the individual spinouts but the pull of capital toward a specific talent pool: DeepMind alumni are being funded as a cohort, with some already seeking nine-figure rounds. That matters for London's standing as an AI hub, since the same shift moving DeepMind's center of gravity to California is also pushing founders and their backers outward. Whether this becomes a durable London startup cluster or a staging point before US relocation is the open question.
Generated by AI for reference only.
Share on WeChat
Open WeChat → Scan → then tap "…" to send to a chat or Moments.
Tap "…" in the top-right corner to send to a chat or share to Moments.
Related News
57m ago
Bill Gates warns AI is powerful enough to enable ‘a billion deaths’
2h ago
Microsoft Shares Rise 3% as Copilot Gets Code Generation, Agentic AI Tools
2h ago
Akamai Shares Jump 16% on Anthropic Partnership Deal
3h ago
Tesla Boosts Optimus Humanoid Robot Output About 10-Fold
3h ago
AI cloud firm Nscale raises $3.36B via convertible notes ahead of IPO
3h ago
Goldman: US AI Hyperscalers Need $300B Annual AI Revenue to Break Even