Microsoft Secures Inflection AI Talent and Models in $650 Million Deal
Microsoft spends $650 million to license Inflection AI's software and hire most of its staff, including cofounder Mustafa Suleyman. Suleyman now leads a new Microsoft AI division overseeing Copilot, Bing, and Edge.
Microsoft completes a complex $650 million deal with Inflection AI that functions as a pseudo-acquisition. Instead of a traditional buyout, Microsoft licenses Inflection's software and hires almost its entire staff. Inflection uses the funds to provide a technical, yet marginal, return to its investors while essentially dissolving its original consumer-focused operations.
Mustafa Suleyman, the cofounder of Inflection AI and former head of applied AI at DeepMind, steps in as the CEO of Microsoft AI. In this new role, Suleyman leads all of Microsoft's consumer AI products and research, including the Copilot generative AI service, the Bing search engine, and the Edge browser. Chief scientist Karén Simonyan also joins Microsoft to help oversee the integration of Inflection's technology.
This strategic move gives Microsoft access to Inflection's advanced large language models and its enterprise-focused Conversational API. Originally known for the Pi chatbot, which attracts millions of users with its supportive conversational style, Inflection recently pivots toward licensing its technology to businesses. Microsoft seizes this enterprise potential to enhance its own AI offerings for business customers and investors.