Google DeepMind Exodus Sparks VC Frenzy for AI’s Next Big Thing - Yahoo Finance

(Bloomberg) -- When a group of 15 Google DeepMind employees and alumni met for a breakfast this month in central London, the conversation quickly turned to how to raise money for an artificial intelligence startup.

Most Read from Bloomberg

Over bowls of coconut chia muesli and plates of smashed avocado, served in a five-star hotel across the street from Google's UK headquarters, they swapped tips about what businesses deep-pocketed investors in Silicon Valley are looking to fund, according to a person who attended.

For years, Alphabet Inc.'s London research lab was a destination of choice for top AI research talent. But the mood is changing as the Mountain View-based company shifts the power center of its AI division from London to California, highlighted by DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis stepping down from running Google's AI and research operations in August.

A number of DeepMind alumni have founded their own companies recently, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from investors looking for the next big AI breakthrough.

Nando de Freitas, who worked at DeepMind for about a decade before a stint at Microsoft Corp., is in discussions to raise at least $100 million initially for a startup called Revolution Labs, according to multiple people familiar with the plans. Revolution Labs is set to focus on AI diffusion models, an alternative to the transformer technology that underpins large language models, they said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private.

De Freitas, who left DeepMind in 2024, didn't respond to requests for comment.

He follows other DeepMind scientists, including David Silver, Thore Graepel and Jack Parker-Holder, who have raised or are in talks to raise money for projects as investors back researchers with a track record at the storied AI lab. Google and DeepMind have produced over 40 founders of so-called neolabs — more than OpenAI, Anthropic PBC and Meta Platforms Inc. combined, according to June analysis by Radical Ventures.

Other prominent DeepMind executives in London have jumped to rivals, such as Nobel laureate John Jumper, who took a job at Anthropic. A Google spokesperson declined to comment on the recent departures.

"These people are being aggressively approached by VCs," said former DeepMind lead scientist Janusz Marecki, now an AI partner at investment firm Ahren Innovation Capital, adding that he meets regularly with DeepMinders "who are looking for an exit."