The sneaky way Big Tech is acquiring AI unicorns without buying the companies

Microsoft, Google and Amazon along with other tech companies have been getting creative in how they’re poaching talent from top artificial intelligence startups.

Earlier this month, Google signed an unusual deal with Character.ai to hire away its prominent founder and more than one-fifth of its workforce while also licensing its technology. It looked like an acquisition, but the deal was structured so that it wasn’t. Google wasn’t the first to take this approach.

Microsoft laid the groundwork in its deal with Inflection, closely followed by Amazon’s faux acquisition of Adept.

It’s a playbook that skirts regulators and their crackdown on Big Tech dominance, provides an exit for AI startups struggling to make money and allows megacaps to pick up the talent needed in the AI arms race.

But while tech giants might think they’re outsmarting antitrust enforcers, they could be playing with fire.

Watch the video to learn more.