Google is building an AI startup incubator that draws on its network of former employees, the so-called “Xooglers”, according to Bloomberg.
The pitch is neat in its logic: as some of the company’s most capable people leave to start their own AI ventures, an incubator built around alumni keeps Google close to them, and close to whatever they build next.The move would slot into machinery Google has already assembled.
The company runs the AI Futures Fund, a joint effort from Google DeepMind and Google Labs that pairs equity funding with technical collaboration and early access to DeepMind’s models, typically co-investing up to around $2m in early-stage frontier startups.
Alongside it sit the Google for Startups accelerators, equity-free and cohort-based. An alumni incubator would add a third channel, one aimed squarely at people who already know how Google works because they used to work there.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The appeal of that focus is practical: a former employee needs no introduction to the company’s systems, its researchers, or its models, which makes the relationship cheaper to build and quicker to put to use.
