In 2022, two former Google employees who developed artificial intelligence left their jobs due to the company’s slow pace. They founded a chatbot start-up called Character.AI, which raised nearly $200 million. Last week, the founders announced that they were returning to Google in a deal to rejoin its A.I. research arm, along with a portion of Character.AI’s employees. However, Google did not acquire Character.AI but instead agreed to pay $3 billion to license its technology. Roughly $2.5 billion of that amount will be used to buy out Character.AI’s shareholders. The remaining portion of Character.AI will continue operating without its founders and investors. This deal exemplifies a new trend in Silicon Valley, where big tech companies prefer licensing technology and hiring key employees without acquiring the entire start-up.
