Microsoft AI Establishes New London Hub Led by Former Inflection and DeepMind Scientist Jordan Hoffmann

Microsoft has unveiled plans for a new London hub dedicated to its recently launched consumer AI division. Heading this initiative is Jordan Hoffmann, an AI scientist and engineer recruited by Microsoft from the prominent AI startup Inflection AI, which Microsoft invested in last year.

This announcement follows Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s revelation about the formation of a consumer AI division, led by the founders of Inflection AI, including Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder of DeepMind, the AI company acquired by Google in 2014.

Nadella previously mentioned that “several members of the Inflection team” would join Microsoft’s new AI unit (although Bloomberg reported that most did). Now, it’s confirmed that Hoffmann, formerly a PhD student who later joined DeepMind as a research scientist in 2020 before transitioning to Inflection AI, is among those who joined Microsoft.

In a recent blog post, Suleyman praised Hoffmann as an “exceptional AI scientist and engineer.” Reporting directly to Nadella in the U.S., Suleyman appointed Hoffmann to lead the new London unit.

According to Suleyman, they will soon post new job openings to recruit additional AI talent to join Hoffmann at Microsoft’s Paddington office, focusing on developing new language models and associated infrastructure and tooling.

This announcement aligns with Microsoft’s recent commitment, made in collaboration with the U.K. government, to invest £2.5 billion ($3.15 billion) in the U.K. over the next three years. This investment includes expanding data center infrastructure and training over one million individuals for the AI economy.

The U.K. ranks among the top countries globally for AI R&D investment, trailing behind the U.S. and China. With Google’s DeepMind also based in London, a significant competition for talent may emerge between these two frontrunners in the AI race.

In related news, Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, was recently knighted for his contributions to artificial intelligence.

TechCrunch contacted Microsoft for further details on the scale of its U.K. AI hub, but the company declined to provide additional information at this time.