Google is rehiring ex-employees to boost its AI game

Business Dec 29, 2025

Google is welcoming back a wave of former employees to strengthen its AI team, as competition with OpenAI, Meta, and Anthropic heats up.
By the end of 2025, about 1 in 5 new AI software engineers at Google are "boomerang" hires—folks who left but decided to return.

Why people are coming back

Google's pulling out all the stops to attract top talent—think massive datasets, custom chips, and global computing power.
Their alumni network is strong too; even AI pioneer Noam Shazeer returned recently.
With big wins like the Gemini models and a positive vibe around innovation, it's easy to see why ex-Googlers are giving the company another shot.