Google Loses Gemini Co-Leader Noam Shazeer to OpenAI

Noam Shazeer, a co-author of the 2017 research paper that introduced the Transformer architecture underpinning modern artificial intelligence, announced that he is leaving Google to join OpenAI. He had served as a vice president of engineering and co-led Google's Gemini models.

The move comes less than two years after Google paid roughly $2.7 billion in an unusual arrangement to license technology from his startup Character.AI and to bring him and his colleagues back to lead Gemini development. The Israeli business press noted the symbolism of losing the researcher that investment had been meant to secure.

The move comes as OpenAI prepares for a likely public offering and as the largest technology companies compete intensely for a small pool of senior AI researchers. The price of that talent, and the willingness of firms to pay it, has become one of the clearest indicators of how much capital is flowing into the industry.