When employees leave Google to join the artificial intelligence startup race, the search giant still has a way to benefit — by keeping those former workers as cloud customers.
More than half of venture-backed generative AI startups pay for Google’s cloud computing platform, Alphabet Inc., Google’s parent company, said Tuesday. Of the startups valued at over $1 billion, 70% are Google Cloud customers, and about a third of those are helmed by former employees, including Anthropic, Character.ai and Cohere, the company said. That gives Google a way to extend its influence in the field even when it sheds talent.