Demis Hassabis, the founder of Google DeepMind and a Nobel laureate, made a personal angel investment in Anthropic, a company now considered one of the strongest competitors to Alphabet's AI business. This previously undisclosed investment was made during Anthropic's early stages, according to sources. Anthropic, currently valued at $900 billion, is among the world's fastest-growing AI startups. Notably, Alphabet as a corporate entity has also separately invested billions in Anthropic, establishing a partnership in cloud computing and AI. This creates a nuanced relationship where Alphabet is both a strategic investor in Anthropic and its AI chief is an early personal shareholder. Sources close to Anthropic revealed that its CEO, Dario Amodei, views Hassabis as a role model. Hassabis's investment portfolio extends beyond Anthropic. He has also acted as an angel investor in several companies founded by former DeepMind colleagues. These include Inflection AI, started by DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman before he joined Microsoft, and Ineffable Intelligence, founded by long-time collaborator David Silver. Ineffable Intelligence and Isomorphic Labs (also founded by Hassabis) have collectively raised over $30 billion in the past month. Additionally, he has invested in the startup incubator Entrepreneurs First. This model of holding a senior corporate role while making extensive external investments is relatively uncommon in the tech industry. The influence of Hassabis is significantly amplified through the talent network he has cultivated. Data indicates that since 2021, former DeepMind researchers have founded more than ten companies, raising at least $14 billion in total funding. These companies span various AI sectors, including Mistral, Harvey, and AMI Labs, among others. A source at the Cambridge-based AI materials search engine Cusp.ai noted that about one-third of its employees are from DeepMind or Isomorphic Labs. A recent example involves former DeepMind researcher Tantum Collins, who previously served as a senior White House official, co-founding a stealth-mode AI startup in London with two other former DeepMind researchers. Concurrently, DeepMind executives are ascending to increasingly prominent positions within Alphabet. DeepMind's Chief Technology Officer, Koray Kavukcuoglu, was promoted last year to become Alphabet's Chief AI Architect. Pushmeet Kohli, who led the Nobel Prize-winning AlphaFold project, was recently promoted to Chief Scientist at Google Cloud. DeepMind's internal standing was further solidified in 2023 when Alphabet consolidated several research teams into a unified department led by Hassabis. This restructuring was a direct response to the competitive pressure ignited by OpenAI's release of ChatGPT. At the time, Hassabis stated the new team needed to "work at a faster pace, with greater collaboration and execution, and streamline decision-making to focus on achieving maximum impact." In a statement, Alphabet said, "It is impressive to see Google DeepMind alumni building impactful new ventures. Investors clearly view Google DeepMind experience as a mark of deep expertise and high-quality work."
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