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Gemini Co-Lead Noam Shazeer Leaves Google for OpenAI

June 18, 2026 at 18:12 EDT

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Noam Shazeer, a co-author of the Transformer paper and co-lead of Google's Gemini AI models, is leaving Google to join OpenAI, as confirmed on June 18, 2026 by his own statement and multiple reports. OpenAI plans to bring him on as a lead for AI architecture research, where his experience with pre-training on Gemini is expected to strengthen the company's model development.

June 2026 · AI Talent War

Gemini Co-Lead Noam Shazeer Leaves Google for OpenAI

The Transformer co-author exits Google again — just under two years after a $2.7B deal brought him back — handing OpenAI a pre-training heavyweight as it races to catch the most advanced rival models.

2017

Co-authored "Attention Is All You Need" — the Transformer paper behind modern LLMs

$2.7B

Character.AI licensing deal that brought him back to Google in 2024

<2 yrs

Time between his Google return and his exit to OpenAI

A 26-Year Career in Four Moves

2000

Joins Google — works on the search spell checker

2021

Co-founds Character.AI — leaves over a chatbot release dispute

Aug 2024

Returns to Google — named Gemini co-lead via the $2.7B deal

Jun 2026

Joins OpenAI — pre-training & architecture research expected

For OpenAI · A Gain

Fills a perceived weakness in pre-training — Google's traditional strength — as OpenAI pushes to catch the most advanced rival models.

For Google · A Blow?

Losing a Gemini co-lead stings — yet many argue the depth of DeepMind can absorb the impact.

Emblematic of the intensifying battle for AI talent —

the real effect on models is expected to surface only through future development.

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