Microsoft AI opens new AI hub in London to attract talent and drive advanced LLM research

Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind and new CEO of Microsoft AI, announced the opening of a new AI hub in London. The Microsoft AI London Hub will work on advanced language models and their supporting infrastructure, as well as develop tools for foundation models. Jordan Hoffmann, a former Inflection and DeepMind employee, will lead the hub. Microsoft plans to make a long-term investment in the region and hire top AI scientists and engineers, Suelyman says. He, Hoffmann, and about 60 AI experts recently joined Microsoft through its indirect acquisition of UK-based AI startup Inflection AI. Inflection still exists, but is now a skeleton crew offering services for fine-tuning AI models. The move allowed Microsoft to acquire a lot of AI talent in one fell swoop, build a stronger AI presence in Europe, and eliminate a potential OpenAI competitor. Competition authorities are already keeping a close eye on Microsoft because of its massive investments in AI startups like OpenAI.