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The
deal, echoing ones struck by Microsoft and Amazon in the past
few months, will see Character.AI co-founders Noam Shazeer and
Daniel De Freitas rejoin Google, where they were formerly
employees.
Those other deals are being scrutinized by regulators,
reflecting growing concern in both the U.S. and Europe about how
AI deals are put together by tech giants who are funneling
billions into bolstering their AI infrastructure and hiring the
best researchers from startups.
Character.AI will get more funding as part of the deal with
Google, the startup said in a blog, without disclosing the
amount. Dominic Perella, Character.AI's general counsel, will
become its interim CEO, effective immediately.
"We're particularly thrilled to welcome back Noam, a preeminent
researcher in machine learning, who is joining Google DeepMind's
research team, along with a small number of his colleagues," a
Google spokesperson said in an email.
In March, Microsoft paid $650 million to bring on the cofounders
and dozens of staff from AI startup Inflection. In June, Amazon
hired several cofounders and employees from Adept, another AI
startup.
Character.AI previously raised $193 million in venture capital
from investors including Andreessen Horowitz. It was in talks to
raise hundreds from millions from Google, Reuters reported in
November.
Inflection and Adept raised $1.3 billion and $415 million,
respectively.
Law firm Sullivan & Cromwell advised Character.AI on the deal.
(Reporting by Juby Babu in Mexico City and Kenrick Cai in San
Francisco; Editing by Alan Barona, Devika Syamnath and David
Gregorio)
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