Google is fighting the AI talent war by rehiring former employees, 1 in 5 AI employees are boomerangs
Google is bringing back former AI engineers to accelerate its generic AI development. According to a new report, one in five software engineers hired by Google for AI roles in 2025 was one Boomerang employee returning.
When it comes to artificial intelligence, Google is proving that sometimes the best way to move forward is to look back. In a year defined by fierce poaching and underwhelming salary offers in Silicon Valley, the tech giant has been quietly luring back some of its brightest former minds. According to internal data confirmed by the company, reported by CNBC, nearly one in five software engineers hired by Google for AI roles in 2025 was a Boomerang employee, with ex-Googlers returning to the field. The figure represents a significant increase over previous years, highlighting a shift in strategy as Google has doubled down on its AI push against rivals such as OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta.
A spokesperson for the company told CNBC that the numbers have been stable through December, and Google is also seeing an increase in direct hiring from competitors compared to 2024. For the Mountain View-based giant, re-hiring alumni is not only convenient, it’s also strategic.
Google rehires ex-Googlers
Some of the most high-profile returns have come from Google’s own AI past. Noam Shazier, one of the minds behind the Transformer architecture that underpins almost every modern AI model, re-joined Google’s DeepMind last year, along with Daniel de Freitas and other members of their Character.AI research team. The return follows a licensing deal for Character.AI’s technology, effectively bringing both the talent and intellectual property back into Google’s orbit.
It’s a dramatic turnaround for Shazier and de Freitas, who left Google in 2021 after their efforts to pursue an internal chatbot project failed. Their new homecoming underscores how aggressively Google is now moving to recapture its lost momentum in generative AI, momentum that was shaken when OpenAI’s ChatGPT arrived on the scene in 2022.
Google’s internal environment has also changed dramatically. The company’s compensation chief John Casey recently told employees that AI-focused engineers are returning for access to Google’s unmatched compute power and deep research infrastructure, resources that remain the envy of the tech world.
A new tempo on old Google
After being criticized for sluggish product rollouts and bureaucratic dysfunction, Google has spent most of 2024 and 2025 in reinvention mode. The company has flattened management layers, laid off more than a third of small-team supervisors, and encouraged teams to ship faster, even if it meant releasing products before they were fully polished.
It appears that this gamble is paying off. Google’s Gemini AI models, especially the recently launched Gemini 3, have earned praise for bridging the gap with OpenAI’s GPT lineup. Alphabet’s share price has surged more than 60 percent this year, outperforming its megacap rivals and restoring confidence in the company’s AI future.
Meanwhile, competition has become more intense. Microsoft poached nearly two dozen DeepMind researchers earlier this year, while OpenAI and Meta are spending money mindlessly. In June, OpenAI’s Sam Altman reportedly told employees that Meta was offering $100 million signing bonuses for recruiting top researchers.
According to a CNBC report, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who stepped out of retirement in 2023, has personally contacted candidates to convince them to return. It’s an unusually insightful recruiting campaign from a billionaire founder, but in the current climate, no gesture seems very bold.
Boomerang Employees in the tech industry are on the rise, according to ADP Research, which found that the “information” sector is leading the rebound trend. But some companies like Google have adopted it. For a company that once seemed to be losing the AI race, re-hiring its alumni may be the smartest innovation of all.
