Google only addressed Openai a major blow by shaking a possible deal of $ 3 billion, and doing so, consolidated a growing trend in Silicon Valley’s AI weapon race: the “non-acquisition acquisition.”
Google announced on July 11 that it had released a key talent for the rapidly growing AI -Standsurf, which had hitherto had a $ 3 billion reported with Openai, which has now collapsed. Instead, Google pays $ 2.4 billion Employment employees of top Windsurf, including the company’s general manager, and taking not an exclusive license to its technology, according to Bloomberg.
With the best brains of Waching Windsurf but not gaining the launch itself, Google achieved two critical goals at once: it canceled the moment of Openai and gained access to the valuable AI technology of the runway.
Friday’s announcement is just the latest instance of what is becoming more and more the tactic for large ie companiesnological companies seeking to grow their competitive edge. Technological analysts described it as “non-acquisition acquisition”, or more simply, “available.”
The beating wars began
Openai, the company behind Chatgpt, ignited the current AI -Frenzy back in 2022 and has been the leader in generative AI since then. But its market lead is increasingly challenged by large technology competitors like Google and Meta, and is now clearer than ever that elite AI engineers are the most valuable currency in this struggle for domain.
Recently Openai has found himself a primary goal. After a series of high-profile talented Meta attacks, OpenAI executives described the feeling as if “someone got into our home and stole something”, in an internal memory acquired by Wired.
The greatest aggressor in this new era of “The Beating Wars” was Meta. In April 2025, Director General Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that the company fell behind competitors in the AI race. His comments led to a multi-million dollar spending marked by strategic talents. Meta hired Scaleai’s CEO, Alexandr Wang, Apple Ruoming Pang’s highest AI mental, and Nat Friedman, former general manager of Microsoft-owned Github, as well as numerous top Openai employees tempted by multi-year offers worth millions. The company collects this talent under a new group dedicated to developing AI -superintelligence called Meta Superintelligence Labs.
Similar acquisition offers were hit by Microsoft and Amazon last year. Microsoft hired top employees of AI initial inflection, including co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, who now leads Microsoft’s AI division. Amazon hired co-founders and other best talents of the AI agent startup Adept.
This is also not Google’s first rodeo with acquisition. The technological giant allowed for a similar agreement with the initial character. AI about a year ago, which gave Google a non-exclusive license to its LLM technology and saw his two co-founders join the company.
Why hire but don’t get: regulatory gap
Beyond just being a symbol of a new era in the AI weapon race, this growth of acquisitions reveals a new game book for a large Te Techniko to grow its market rule while aligning antitrust-struck. This tactic follows a period of intense regulatory pressure under the President Lina Khan of a former Federal Trade Commission (FTC), whose management has fallen on alleged anti-competitive practices in the AI industry.
Both meta and Google are already in intense scrutiny of the FTC.
Meta awaits a verdict on an anti -trim process of FTC’s claim that it holds a monopoly over social media. Google, on the other hand, has been handled numerous anti -trim defeats last year, accused of having monopolies in online search and online advertising. The company is waiting for the final results of a lawsuit, which could possibly see it forced to disintegrate from its Chrome retreat.
At the beginning of last year, under the leadership of Khan, the commission also launched a survey of Microsoft, Amazon and Google on their investments in AI, Openai and Antropic.
Under this cloud of regulatory pressure, it seems that acquisition proves to be an easy way for a big Techniko to get what it wants. The big names gain all the necessary access to the technology and the highest research talent of AI stations without having to go through the control obstacles of formal acquisition.
Forward, it is now to the current FTC, under Trump-designated President Andrew Ferguson, to define his attitude to this practice. Although not seen as the same kind of Hardliner against Big Tech as Khan, Ferguson largely continued to conduct the previous management’s investigations, even as President Trump entertained Silicon Valley leaders at Mar-A Lake.
As FTC of Ferguson and the Trump administration generally choose to respond, or not, to this new wave of regulatory gaps will determine the future of US Great Techniko and the AI industry as a whole.
