Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis said that his lab doesn’t “feel any immediate pressure to make knee-jerk decisions” on monetizing AI. A new book out Tuesday explains why.

How DeepMind Ended Up With The Biggest War Chest In AI

Sebastian Mallaby’s The Infinity Machine reveals that Hassabis sold DeepMind to Google in 2014 because he knew the AI race would come down to funding. Mark Zuckerberg offered more money, but Hassabis chose Larry Page after a dinner where Zuckerberg showed equal enthusiasm for AI, VR, and 3D printing. Hassabis wanted a buyer that understood AI wasn’t just another technology on a list.

Hassabis wasn’t always happy inside Google. Mallaby writes that he and co-founder Mustafa Suleyman tried to buy DeepMind back, recruiting Reid Hoffman to put up $1 billion for a spinout, but three years of legal work went nowhere. Google wouldn’t let them go.

That failed escape may now be his greatest edge. Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) guided 2026 capex of $175 billion to $185 billion, nearly double 2025, funding the AI buildout with one of the lowest debt ratios among the hyperscalers. DeepMind is the only major AI lab not chasing both AGI and an IPO.

Where The Rivals Stand

OpenAI is in full scramble mode. It is projecting $14 billion in losses this year and offering private equity firms a guaranteed 17.5% minimum return to embed it’s models across portfolio companies. The company killed its Sora video app last week, torpedoing a $1 billion deal with Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS).

Anthropic currently has the best models on the market, and its annualized revenue blew past $19 billion after adding $6 billion in February alone. Chamath Palihapitiya called its output “head and shoulders above anything else.”

Elon Musk’s xAI merged into SpaceX ahead of a potential IPO, but the last original co-founder has now departed. Musk acknowledged on X that xAI “was not built right first time around.”

What Prediction Markets Say

Polymarket traders think Anthropic has a 68% chance of completing its IPO before OpenAI.

A separate contract on who will have the best model at the end of June has Anthropic in the lead at 61%, Google at 26%, OpenAI at 7% and xAI bringing up the rear with 4%.

Polymarket’s AI Bubble Burst by…? contract prices a 23% chance of an industry downturn by year-end on $2.5 million in volume. One trigger: Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ:NVDA) falling 50% from its all-time high.

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