Microsoft Corp. has agreed to pay Inflection AI $650 million, largely to license its synthetic intelligence software program, alongside its transfer earlier this week to rent a lot of the startup’s workers, in line with an individual acquainted with the transaction.
Microsoft shocked the AI world on Tuesday with an announcement that it had employed Inflection’s co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan, together with a lot of the startup’s 70 staff. The bizarre deal, first reported by Bloomberg Information, resembled an “acqui-hire” — however with out an acquisition. Some authorized and business specialists have recommended that Microsoft’s Inflection deal may nonetheless spark antitrust issues with US regulators, who’re more and more scrutinizing Massive Tech’s AI investments and partnerships.