Tech giant Microsoft announced Tuesday that it has named Mustafa Suleyman, the co-founder of two high-profile AI startups, as chief executive of its new AI division.
“I’ve known Mustafa for several years and have greatly admired him as a founder of both DeepMind and Inflection, and as a visionary, product maker, and builder of pioneering teams that go after bold missions,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a memo sent to staff.
Suleyman will report to Nadella and will oversee all of the company’s AI products and research including Copilot, Bing, and Edge. His official title is executive vice president and CEO of Microsoft AI.
Previously, Suleyman served as the CEO of the startup he founded with LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, Inflection AI — the maker of the persona AI chatbot Pi.
The company said in a blog post today that it will host Inflection 2.5 on Microsoft Azure.
Suleyman also co-founded DeepMind, an AI research lab that focuses on machine learning and neuroscience, which was acquired by Google in 2014. The Alphabet subsidiary unveiled today a prototype AI assistant for soccer coaches.
AI leadership shuffle
“My friend and longtime collaborator Karén Simonyan will be Chief Scientist, and several of our amazing teammates have chosen to join us,” Suleyman said in a post on X on Tuesday.
As part of the move, Mikhail Parakhi, the executive in charge of Mircosoft’s advertising and web services and his team will now report to Suleyman. The company’s head of GenAI Misha Bilenko and along with his team will also report to him.
A former Mozilla executive, Sean White, will replace Suleyman as the new CEO of Inflection.