Google just completed its $1.5 billion-plus talent deal for AI startup Mechanize

Google has some fresh talent in the AI race.

The tech giant has completed its talent deal with San Francisco startup Mechanize Inc, public postings show.

Mechanize’s co-founder and ex-CEO, Tamay Besiroglu, now works as a research scientist at Google’s AI division, DeepMind, according to his LinkedIn profile.

Over a dozen other former Mechanize employees now work at Google, per LinkedIn, mostly on the company’s ‘midtraining’ efforts — a key part of building the best chatbot.

Google and Besiroglu declined to comment.

Google had been in talks for a $1.5 billion-plus deal for Mechanize’s tech and talent, Business Insider previously reported.

The final terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Mechanize’s former chief of staff, Guive Assadi, now describes himself as its CEO, per LinkedIn.

Google has been struggling to release an AI model that’s widely viewed as competitive lately.

It has used talent deals — which are typically structured to avoid antitrust scrutiny compared to fully fledged acquisitions — to gain an edge.

For example, Google snapped up AI coding startup Windsurf’s talent last year, with former CEO Varun Mohan now leading Google’s agentic coding program Antigravity.

Mechanize’s technology helps tech companies’ AI models improve at coding, a challenge Google has struggled with.

Mechanize said earlier this year that it raised $9.1 million in a funding round at a $500 million valuation.

Besiroglu previously cofounded Epoch AI, which also focused on testing AI models.

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