As the global race for artificial intelligence leadership intensifies, Google is leaning on a familiar advantage: its own alumni. In 2025, nearly one in five software engineers hired by Google for AI-focused roles were “boomerang employees” — former Googlers who have returned after stints elsewhere. The trend, confirmed by internal company data and reported by a famous publication, signals a strategic shift as Google works to strengthen its position against rivals such as OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Microsoft.

The rehiring push reflects a broader recalibration within the Mountain View-based tech giant. A Google spokesperson told a famous publication that the proportion of returning employees has remained steady through December, while the company is also hiring more talent directly from competitors compared to 2024. In a market defined by aggressive poaching and soaring compensation packages, Google appears to be betting that familiarity, scale, and resources can lure top minds back.

Some of the most prominent returns come from Google’s own AI legacy. Noam Shazeer, a key architect behind the Transformer model that underpins most modern AI systems, rejoined Google DeepMind last year. He returned alongside Daniel De Freitas and other researchers from the Character.AI team. Their comeback followed a licensing agreement that brought Character.AI’s technology under Google’s umbrella, effectively reuniting both intellectual property and talent.

The move marks a dramatic turnaround. Shazeer and De Freitas had left Google in 2021 after internal efforts to advance a chatbot initiative failed to gain traction. Their return underscores how sharply Google’s priorities have shifted since OpenAI’s ChatGPT burst into the mainstream in 2022, shaking confidence in Google’s AI leadership.

Internally, the atmosphere at Google has evolved as well. John Casey, the company’s head of compensation, recently told employees that AI-focused engineers are returning largely for access to Google’s vast compute capabilities and deep research infrastructure — resources that few organisations can match.

This renewed urgency has coincided with organisational change. After facing criticism for slow execution and bureaucratic layers, Google spent much of 2024 and 2025 streamlining management, cutting more than a third of small-team supervisors, and pushing teams to release products faster, even if they are not fully polished at launch.

Early signs suggest the strategy is gaining traction. Google’s Gemini AI models, including the newly launched Gemini 3, have drawn praise for narrowing the gap with OpenAI’s GPT series. Investor confidence has followed, with Alphabet’s stock rising more than 60 per cent this year, outperforming other megacap technology firms.

Competition for talent remains fierce. Microsoft reportedly hired around two dozen DeepMind researchers earlier this year, while OpenAI and Meta continue to offer eye-catching incentives. In June, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly told staff that Meta was offering $100 million signing bonuses to attract leading researchers.

Google has responded with unusually personal recruitment efforts. According to a famous publication, co-founder Sergey Brin, who returned to active involvement in 2023, has personally contacted candidates to persuade them to come back.

Across the industry, the resurgence of boomerang employees is becoming more common. ADP Research recently noted that the “information” sector leads this rebound trend. Few companies, however, are embracing it as deliberately as Google. For a firm once perceived as falling behind in AI, bringing its best minds back home may prove to be its most effective innovation yet.