Microsoft today announced a new London-based hub that will serve as the cornerstone for a newly formed consumer AI division. That unit will be led by Jordan Hoffmann, an AI scientist and engineer Microsoft recently hired after snapping him from high-profile AI startup Inflection AI – to which Microsoft invested last year.

This happens less than three weeks after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a new consumer AI division led by Inflection AI's co-founders, including Mustafa Suleyman, cofounder of DeepMind-the AI company Google purchased in 2014.

But "several members of the Inflection team", Nadella said at the time, had joined Microsoft's new AI unit, Bloomberg reported most actually did. We know now that at least one of those was Hoffmann, a former PhD student who had joined DeepMind as a research scientist in 2020 before jumping ship for Inflection AI after Suleyman founded the startup in 2022 and started poaching employees from DeepMind and Meta.

In today's blog post, Suleyman described Hoffmann as "exceptional AI scientist and engineer"; Suleyman reports directly to Nadella in the US, and in this new appointment, Hoffmann will lead a new London unit.

They will release new job postings in "the coming weeks and months" to hire new AI talent on board to assist Hoffmann in developing new language models as well as the infrastructure and tooling associated with them at Microsoft's Paddington office, according to Suleyman.

This also ties into another recent announcement, made in tandem with the U.K. government, in which Microsoft stated it would commit £2.5 billion ($3.15 billion) in the UK over the next three years, this including further expansion of its data center footprint, and to train "more than one million people for the AI economy."

The U.K. ranks among the world's top countries when it comes to the investment in AI R&D, but other than the U.S. and China, and now Google's DeepMind in the UK's capital, it might not be long before we see a serious talent tug-of-war between two of the leaders for AI supremacy.

Microsoft said it has established a new London headquarters for its newly announced consumer AI division. The entity will be run by Jordan Hoffmann, an AI scientist and engineer Microsoft recently acquired from the high-profile AI startup Inflection AI, which is a company Microsoft invested in last year.

It comes three weeks after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a new consumer AI division headed up by the founders of Inflection AI, Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, which Google acquired in 2014.

At the time, Nadella said that "several members of the Inflection team" also joined Microsoft's new AI unit (Bloomberg reported that most actually joined). We now know that one of those was Hoffmann, a former PhD student who joined DeepMind as a research scientist in 2020 before jumping ship for Inflection AI, after Suleyman founded the startup in 2022 and started poaching employees from DeepMind and Meta.

In a blog post today, Suleyman refers to Hoffmann as "an exceptional AI scientist and engineer," and with Suleyman himself reporting directly to Nadella in the U.S., it would seem that Hoffmann will run the new London unit.

Over the coming weeks and months, Suleyman said, his outfit will be posting new job openings to hire new talent in AI, on board to join Hoffmann at Microsoft's Paddington office where new language models and associated infrastructure and tooling will be developed.

This also feeds into another recent announcement made in tandem with the U.K. government, where Microsoft said it would invest £2.5 billion ($3.15 billion) in the U.K. over the next three years and that would include expanding its data center footprint and training "more than one million people for the AI economy."

While the U.S. and China must, of course be regarded as the world's heavy hitters when it comes to AI R&D spend, with Google's DeepMind also based in the UK capital, we could now soon witness an almighty talent tug-of-war between two of the competition's frontrunners.