Google Acquires Mechanize's AI Talent in $1.5B+ Deal to Boost Coding Capabilities

Google has quietly completed a talent acquisition of San Francisco-based AI startup Mechanize Inc., with co-founder and former CEO Tamay Besiroglu now listed as a research scientist at Google DeepMind. Over a dozen former Mechanize employees have also joined Google, primarily working on the company's 'midtraining' efforts — a technically critical phase in developing competitive large language models.

The deal had been reported as potentially worth more than $1.5 billion, though final terms remain undisclosed. Mechanize had raised $9.1 million earlier this year at a $500 million valuation, making the reported deal price a substantial premium. Besiroglu previously co-founded Epoch AI, a research organization focused on evaluating and benchmarking AI systems.

The structure — a talent deal rather than a full acquisition — is increasingly common in the AI industry as a way to sidestep antitrust scrutiny. Google has used this playbook before: it absorbed the team behind AI coding startup Windsurf last year, with that company's former CEO Varun Mohan now heading Google's agentic coding initiative called Antigravity.

Mechanize's core technology was designed to help AI models get better at coding tasks — an area where Google has faced persistent criticism for lagging behind rivals. The move signals Google's continued urgency to close the gap in AI model quality, particularly in programming-related benchmarks where competitors have pulled ahead. Meanwhile, Mechanize's former chief of staff Guive Assadi now holds the CEO title at what remains of the startup.