How Google Beat Facebook to Buy DeepMind for $650M

A book excerpt from Sebastian Mallaby in the Wall Street Journal details how Google acquired London-based AI startup DeepMind for $650 million in 2014, outmaneuvering Facebook in the process.

Before AI created billionaires and rattled stock markets, DeepMind was already catching the eye of tech's biggest players. Both Google and Facebook wanted the startup. Google won.

The excerpt also reveals how DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman employed poker-style bluffing tactics to secure an AI safety board as part of the deal. Not to win the acquisition itself — but to ensure guardrails came with it.

That $650M price tag looks almost quaint now. DeepMind went on to become one of the most influential AI labs on the planet, and Suleyman eventually left to co-found Inflection AI before joining Microsoft.