Two Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) engineers, Srinivasan Venkata chary and Anand Shukla. According to reports, the two tech giants were competing to hire and retain the engineers, who co-founded the machine learning startup Laser like with another Google engineer, Steven Baker. The startup was later acquired by Apple.
Venkatachary holds a BTech degree from IIT-Madras, while Shukla studied BTech from IIT-Kanpur. Their startup, Laserlike, was focused on creating a search engine that would learn and adapt to the needs of individual users.
The competition between Google and Apple for top talent is not uncommon, as both companies have been known to poach employees from each other in the past. The two tech giants are among the biggest recruiters of talent from the IITs, which are considered to be among the top engineering schools in India.
Reports suggest that the IIT engineers’ expertise in machine learning and artificial intelligence is what made them a valuable asset for both companies. While the financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed, it is believed that the deal was worth several million dollars.
The competition to retain and attract top talent in the tech industry is expected to intensify as companies continue to invest heavily in AI and machine learning. In recent years, there has been a surge in demand for experts in these fields, leading to a shortage of talent. This has resulted in companies offering increasingly attractive compensation packages to lure the best candidates.
As for Venkata chary and Shukla, their experience and expertise in machine learning and AI are expected to be put to good use by their new employer. While Google and Apple may be competing for the best talent, the real winner is likely to be the company that can leverage this talent to create the most innovative and transformative products.