AI Platforms Exist, but Their Creators Are Departing

Key Points

• Four top Alphabet engineers left the company on Aug. 5, and longtime OpenAI executive Brad Lightcap exited that company six days later.

• The hyperscalers’ AI backlogs are growing faster than ever as companies lock in commitments for cloud computing capacity.

• The companies that control the infrastructure and the applications will have a distinct advantage.

On August 5, four senior engineers from Alphabet, including Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat, left to establish a start-up named Discovery Loop. Their departure coincided with Brad Lightcap’s exit from OpenAI six days later, shortly after a $7 billion tender offer for employees to sell their shares. These shifts highlight a significant talent exodus from major tech firms, particularly as demand for AI grows and former leaders pivot to new ventures.

In the cloud sector, Microsoft’s Azure reported a 43% revenue increase last quarter, surpassing $100 billion in annual revenue for the first time, with a commercial backlog of $678 billion. Meanwhile, Amazon Web Services saw a 37% revenue increase, marking its fastest growth in years, while Alphabet’s Google Cloud grew by 82%, ending with a $514 billion backlog. This backdrop underscores the rapid ascension of cloud computing capabilities while raising questions about who will dominate the future of AI applications.