Microsoft is opening an AI hub in London.
The news follows the creation of Microsoft AI, the vendor's new arm that intends to progress its AI products and research, including its flagship Copilot service.
AI scientist Jordan Hoffmann, formerly of AI organisations Deepmind and Inflection, will lead the new AI hub and will be joined by a group of Microsoft AI team members based in its London Paddington office.
Mustafa Suleyman, EVP and CEO of Microsoft AI, wrote in the announcement blog:
I’m thrilled to share that Microsoft AI is opening a new AI hub in the heart of London. Microsoft AI London will drive pioneering work to advance state-of-the-art language models and their supporting infrastructure and to create world-class tooling for foundation models, collaborating closely with our AI teams across Microsoft and with our partners, including OpenAI."
Microsoft plans to capitalise on the significant pool of AI scientists and engineers in the UK, intending to make long-term investments in the region. Suleyman stated that job openings will be posted in the following weeks and months, offering opportunities to work on cutting-edge AI challenges.
"This is great news for Microsoft AI and for the UK," Suleyman added. "As a British citizen, born and raised in London, I’m proud to have co-founded and built a cutting-edge AI business here. I’m deeply aware of the extraordinary talent pool and AI ecosystem in the UK, and I’m excited to make this commitment to the UK on behalf of Microsoft AI."
The new Microsoft AI London hub complements the company's existing presence in the UK, including the Microsoft Research Cambridge lab, which is known for pioneering AI, cloud, and productivity research. It aligns with Microsoft's £2.5 billion investment to upskill the UK workforce for the AI era and develop the necessary infrastructure for the AI economy, including plans to deploy 20,000 advanced GPUs by 2026.
Suleyman's Significant Appointment as Microsoft AI CEO
Suleyman took the helm as Microsoft AI's CEO last month.
Suleyman oversees Microsoft's consumer and business-centric AI products and services, encompassing Copilot, Bing, and Edge. As a Microsoft Executive Vice President (EVP), Suleyman will join Microsoft’s senior leadership team and report directly to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.
Microsoft hired Suleyman and recruited several of Inflection AI’s employees, including Hoffman and co-founder Karén Simonyan. Nadella described Simonyan as “a renowned AI researcher and thought leader” and will serve as the chief scientist of Microsoft AI.
