Alphabet GOOG just took a noticeable hit in the AI talent race.
Noam Shazeer, one of the key people leading Google’s Gemini AI effort, said he is leaving the company to join OpenAI. That is a big move because Shazeer was not just another executive. Google reportedly paid $2.7 billion less than 2 years ago to bring him and several Character.AI researchers back into the company.
In 2024, Google made Shazeer a co-lead on Gemini, and he has been widely seen as one of the people helping Google close the gap with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. In a post on X, Shazeer said he was proud of what the Google team had built and was “excited” to join OpenAI.
this is another reminder that the AI race is not only about chips, data centers or product launches. It is also about who can keep the best researchers. Losing a key Gemini leader to OpenAI does not break Google’s AI story, but it does add pressure at a sensitive time.
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