At a time when big tech companies are fighting hard to hire the best AI talent, something interesting is happening at Google. Many former Google employees are coming back to the company. And they’re not returning because of massive signing bonuses or flashy pay packages.
Across Silicon Valley, companies like Meta and OpenAI are offering extremely high salaries and bonuses to attract top AI engineers. In some cases, these bonuses reportedly go as high as $100 million. Google, however, is taking a different route.
According to a report by CNBC, about 20% of the AI engineers Google hired in 2025 were people who had worked at the company before. These “returning employees” suggest that money alone is not the biggest reason people choose where to work.
So why are they coming back?
Inside Google, leaders say many engineers are drawn to the company’s resources. Google owns and runs its own powerful computing systems, cloud services, and consumer products. This means engineers can build new ideas, test them quickly, and see them reach real users at a large scale. For many people who work in AI, this ability to build and see impact matters more than a huge one-time payment.
Google’s head of compensation, John Casey, recently spoke about this internally. He said researchers are attracted to Google because it has the money, tools, and long-term ability to support ambitious projects. In simple terms, people want a place where their work can actually move forward, not get stuck.
The company has also been changing how it works. Over the past year, Google has reduced layers of management to help teams move faster. This has made it easier for engineers to focus on building products instead of navigating internal processes.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin has also become more involved again. He has personally reached out to top engineers to encourage them to return. At the same time, the recent success of Google’s AI model, Gemini 3, has helped improve confidence inside and outside the company after a difficult period a few years ago.
This trend is not unique to Google. Microsoft AI CEO Mustafa Suleyman recently said that AI experts are constantly moving between the biggest tech firms, as demand continues to outpace supply.
For Google, the message seems clear: while money matters, many engineers are choosing places where they can do meaningful work, build at scale, and stay for the long run.
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