Microsoft plans to open a new office in London solely for working on artificial intelligence. Mustafa Suleyman, who leads AI at Microsoft, said they’ll be hiring talented people soon and later, but they haven’t said how many positions yet.
Microsoft intends to make lasting investments in the area.
Microsoft, a major supporter of OpenAI, is expanding, which coincides with OpenAI opening a London office in 2023. Read also AI Chip Boom TSMC to its fastest monthly sales growth since 2022
The UK has a large pool of talent in AI, and Microsoft plans to invest heavily in the region by hiring top AI scientists and engineers for their new AI center.
Mustafa Suleyman, who helped set up DeepMind (an AI lab bought by Google in 2014) and founded Inflection AI in 2022, has joined Microsoft. He has appointed Jordan Hoffmann, an AI engineer from DeepMind and Inflection, to lead activities at the new office.
He announced that Microsoft AI London will lead important efforts to improve advanced language models and their underlying systems. He praised the UK for its careful approach to AI development.
“The Microsoft AI London hub joins Microsoft’s existing presence in the UK, including the Microsoft Research Cambridge lab, where top researchers work on AI, cloud computing, and productivity. It also aligns with Microsoft’s recent £2.5 billion investment to train UK workers for the AI era and develop the infrastructure needed for the AI economy. This includes our commitment to bring 20,000 advanced GPUs to the country by 2026,” said Suleyman.
Microsoft previously announced it would increase its investment in OpenAI from $1 billion to a multi-billion dollar partnership starting in 2023. They have also shown continued support for OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, especially during a period when he was temporarily removed and then reinstated in November.
As a result of these actions, Microsoft has become the most valuable publicly traded company worldwide, with its market value exceeding $3 trillion.
Howard Dawber, London’s deputy mayor for business, commented on LinkedIn that Microsoft’s AI hub is great news and highlights London’s growing importance in the global AI landscape.
Although Microsoft’s research facility is currently in Cambridge, not far from London, the company’s decision to expand into the UK shows its commitment to developing AI infrastructure in the country. This expansion complements Microsoft’s goal of installing 20,000 GPUs in the UK by 2026 and providing training for local workers.
The Cambridge team is currently working on AI research projects like Project Silica, which aims to create sustainable data storage solutions using glass.