Why Demis Hassabis Ignored Elon Musk and Sold DeepMind to Google for $650 Million Instead

3 hours ago 3

Jeremy Phillips

Tue, April 14, 2026 astatine 7:24 AM CDT 4 min read

  • Larry Page convinced Demis Hassabis to merchantability DeepMind to Google (GOOGL) for $650 cardinal successful 2014, betting that the company’s compute infrastructure and patience could money AGI probe astatine the required scale.

  • Google’s concern successful DeepMind proved prescient: the tech elephantine has grown 1,060% since 2014, Gemini models present process implicit 10 cardinal tokens per minute, and Alphabet is committing $175-185 cardinal successful superior expenditures to AI infrastructure successful 2026.

  • Strategic acquirers with existing infrastructure are often the lone viable way for backing moonshot probe that requires monolithic compute and multi-decade clip horizons.

  • The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 AI stocks. Get them present FREE.

The root communicative of Google buying DeepMind is worthy knowing if you ain Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOGL) oregon if you are pursuing AI whatsoever. (All of us?)

In January 2014, Demis Hassabis was facing a wall. VC backers had reneged connected backing commitments to DeepMind, leaving the laboratory without the superior it needed to prosecute what Hassabis described arsenic his halfway ambition: "get a shitload of computers and lick intelligence." That ngo connection does not acceptable neatly into a task fund's five-year instrumentality window.

READ: The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 just named his apical 10 AI stocks

This is the overlooked part. Blue entity probe and task superior are fundamentally misaligned. VC funds request exits. AGI probe needs decades and infrastructure that costs billions. When the wealth dried up, Hassabis had to find a antithetic benignant of partner.

Larry Page pitched Demis connected selling to Google alternatively than going independent. The connection was astir $650 million. Google had the compute, the patience, and the organisation that nary VC could match.

Elon Musk made a competing pitch, informing Hassabis astir the risks of firm power implicit AGI and offering an alternate way done Tesla and SpaceX. Hassabis declined. His reasoning came down to resources and ngo fit. Google could really money the probe astatine the standard required. Musk's alternate could not warrant the aforesaid compute access.

Twelve years later, the numbers archer the story. GOOGL has risen astir 1,060% since January 2014. The DeepMind squad is present cardinal to Alphabet's AI strategy, liable for the Gemini exemplary family.

In Q4 2025, Alphabet posted $113.83 cardinal successful revenue, rising 18% twelvemonth implicit year. CEO Sundar Pichai said: "The motorboat of Gemini 3 was a large milestone and we person large momentum. Our archetypal enactment models, similar Gemini, present process implicit 10 cardinal tokens per infinitesimal via nonstop API usage by our customers, and the Gemini App has grown to implicit 750 cardinal monthly progressive users."

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