Google DeepMind CEO's 'shout out' to chip engineers and dig at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Sundar Pichai responds with emoji

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis has highlighted the 'overwhelming' demand for Google 's new AI models, Gemini 2.5 and Veo 3 , while also extending a public acknowledgment to the company's chip engineers . His comments seem to also contain a subtle jab at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman , a remark to which Google CEO Sundar Pichai responded with a simple emoji.

Hassabis took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce the "off the charts" demand for Veo 3, Google's video generation AI.

"The demand for Veo 3 has been off the charts! Millions of videos have been generated in the past few days alone, now available on mobile, and in more countries (including the UK! 🇬🇧). Try it out in the Gemini app," he noted.

The demand for Veo 3 has been off the charts! Millions of videos have been generated in the past few days alone, now available on mobile, and in more countries (including the UK! 🇬🇧). Try it out in the @GeminiApp (and the Flow tool for filmmakers at https://t.co/QgTpxTKAOi) https://t.co/jpWfqyKB9U

— Demis Hassabis (@demishassabis) May 30, 2025

Google DeepMind CEO's shout out to engineers for keeping chips working
Amidst this reported surge in usage, Hassabis specifically recognised the teams behind Google's infrastructure.

"Amidst the massive demand for Gemini 2.5 and Veo 3 models, wanted to also give a big shout out to our world-class infrastructure, chip and SRE teams, who work tirelessly to keep our wonderful TPUs from melting, and without whose incredible work none of this would be possible," Hassabis stated.

Amidst the massive demand for Gemini 2.5 and Veo 3 models, wanted to also give a big shout out to our world-class infrastructure, chip and SRE teams, who work tirelessly to keep our wonderful TPUs from melting, and without whose incredible work none of this would be possible. https://t.co/SkajSXXu3Y pic.twitter.com/fXE0fde7yd

— Demis Hassabis (@demishassabis) May 31, 2025

This acknowledgment of the hardware and infrastructure teams seems to be a subtle critique aimed at OpenAI's Sam Altman, who previously announced during Ghibli style trend, the company's processors started to melt.

"it's super fun seeing people love images in chatgpt.
but our GPUs are melting.
we are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. hopefully won't be long!
chatgpt free tier will get 3 generations per day soon."

it's super fun seeing people love images in chatgpt.

but our GPUs are melting.

we are going to temporarily introduce some rate limits while we work on making it more efficient. hopefully won't be long!

chatgpt free tier will get 3 generations per day soon.

— Sam Altman (@sama) March 27, 2025

Google CEO Sundar Pichai publicly reacted to Hassabis's post with an emoji, acknowledging the sentiment.

+💯🙏 https://t.co/iDy2NR2NMA

— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) May 31, 2025