Microsoft has a substantial lead in the race for AI supremacy and after the latest developments, it could give its rivals, including Google, nightmares. After expressing its intentions to extend generative AI to the masses by offering ChatGPT’s services for free, Microsoft has now established an all-new AI division called Microsoft AI and handed its keys over to Mustafa Suleyman, the brain behind Google’s DeepMind division.
For any firm planning to establish its name in the realm of generative AI, that’s a killer combo to beat. But why?
While Microsoft’s access to resources is mostly unmatched by its rivals, it is Suleyman who many believe could fetch good fortunes for the Seattle-based software giant in the highly competitive AI space. Suleyman has been a crucial force behind some of the biggest AI projects in the industry for over a decade and having him on board could let Microsoft be independent of a third-party service provider like OpenAI.
Hence, this gives us the right opportunity to take a look at the life of this British AI pioneer and go through his contributions to the field of generative AI. We will also look at his net worth and illustrious career history.
Mustafa Suleyman’s net worth, career history and achievements
Mustafa Suleyman’s stature in the world of AI is similar to OpenAI’s Sam Altman. Although he had co-founded a few AI startups and worked with Google for almost nine years, Suleyman has not made his net worth official to the world. Details about his annual salary and his assets are not available to the public. Suleyman isn’t available on most social media channels and likes to keep the details of his personal life private.
That said, Suleyman has been in the driving seat of some of the coolest AI startups and based on their evaluation, you can draw a fair idea of what he could be earning. The acquisition of DeepMind is said to have fetched his startup a sum of at least EUR 400 million (HKD 3 billion approximately), which along with his years at Google may have certainly contributed to his overall net worth.
Moreover, his second venture with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffmann, called Inflection AI, is said to hold a value of over USD 1 billion (HKD 7 billion approximately) back in 2022, which was before the surge in AI investments.
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A glimpse into his early life
Mustafa Suleyman was born in 1984 to a Syrian taxi driver and an English nurse. He completed his schooling in the UK and attended Mansfield College in Oxford, during which he dropped out at 19. Suleyman then co-founded the Muslim Youth Helpline, an organisation that provided telephone counselling and went on to become the largest of its kind in the UK.
He worked as a policy officer on human rights for the Mayor of London before being associated with other humanitarian firms like the Reos Partners, the United Nations, the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Dutch government.
His achievements in the field of AI
In 2010, Suleyman co-founded DeepMind, a company that focused on machine learning and served as the Chief Product Officer. DeepMind’s impressive work attracted significant investment from prominent figures like Elon Musk and Scott Banister but it was Google that acquired the firm in 2014 for a record-breaking sum of EUR 400 million.
Following the acquisition, Suleyman led efforts to integrate DeepMind’s powerful AI into various Google products, aiming to enhance their functionality and user experience. He also saw the potential of AI in healthcare. Under his leadership, DeepMind partnered with healthcare institutions to develop new technologies that aimed at improving frontline services, showing that AI could be useful for the healthcare sector.
Suleyman also spearheaded a project that used DeepMind’s algorithms to optimise energy consumption in Google’s data centres.
His career at DeepMind faced a setback in 2019 following allegations of bullying employees and was placed on administrative leave. Although the details of the investigations remain unclear, he departed DeepMind and was shortly offered a high-profile role at Google as VP, of AI Product Management and AI Policy. On the sidelines, he was also serving as a member of the board at The Economist.
In early 2022, Suleyman left Google to join as a Venture Partner with Greylock and a month later, he co-founded Inflection AI with Reid Hoffman. He managed to pull top talents from Google and Meta and in the first round of funding, he managed to secure USD 225 million. During his stint at Inflection AI, one of the key outcomes was the Pi chatbot, an AI chatbot that could remember past conversations and provide a healthy conversation.
Mustafa Suleyman at Microsoft
I’m excited to announce that today I’m joining @Microsoft as CEO of Microsoft AI. I’ll be leading all consumer AI products and research, including Copilot, Bing and Edge. My friend and longtime collaborator Karén Simonyan will be Chief Scientist, and several of our amazing…
— Mustafa Suleyman (@mustafasuleyman) March 19, 2024
However, fate had other plans for him when Microsoft approached him for a job which was originally designed for OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. In March 2024, he left Inflection AI to join Microsoft AI as its CEO and overlook the developments in consumer AI products and research, including Copilot, Bing and Edge. He is bringing some of the top talents from Inflection AI along with him to Microsoft AI, including co-founder Karén Simonyan as the Chief Scientist.
Does Suleyman have any hobbies?
While very little is known about his personal life, Suleyman proudly features the book that he authored on the future of AI and its implications on our daily lives. The book is called The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century’s Greatest Dilemma.
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(Hero and Featured Image Credits: Courtesy Joi Ito from Cambridge, MA, USA/ CC BY 2.0/ via Wikimedia Commons)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
– How much is Mustafa Suleyman’s net worth in 2024?
Mustafa Suleyman hasn’t made his net worth details public.
– How much does Mustafa Suleyman earn annually?
Mustafa Suleyman’s current salary is undisclosed to the public.
