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Gemini Co-Lead Noam Shazeer Departs Google for OpenAI

June 18, 2026 at 04:54 EDT

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Noam Shazeer, a Google vice president who co-led the company's Gemini models, said on June 17 (local time) that he is leaving Google to join OpenAI. The move by a co-author of the original Transformer paper has drawn industry attention as a major talent shift amid intensifying AI development competition.

June 18, 2026 · AI Talent Move

Transformer Co-Author Noam Shazeer Leaves Google for OpenAI

A co-author of "Attention Is All You Need" and co-lead of Gemini calls his exit "a difficult decision" — roughly 18 months after Google rehired him for about $2.7 billion.

$2.7B

Reported 2024 package to rehire him as Gemini co-lead

~18 mo

Time at Google between rehire and this departure

2017

Co-authored the paper that defined modern LLMs

A Career on the Move

2017

Co-authored the Transformer paper "Attention Is All You Need"

~2021

Left Google to co-found conversational AI startup Character.AI

2024

Rehired by Google for ~$2.7B as VP of Engineering & Gemini co-lead

Jun 2026

Announces departure from Google to join OpenAI

A Win for OpenAI

Secures a foundational figure behind the Transformer and sparse (MoE) models. Sam Altman publicly welcomed the move; many expect OpenAI's model work to be further strengthened.

A Blow for Gemini

Losing a co-lead so soon after a ~$2.7B rehire raises questions about how lasting such retention can be amid intensifying competition for AI researchers.

His role and output at OpenAI remain to be seen.

No specific OpenAI role has been announced and no model has been evaluated. His public comments stay neutral — the current focus is renewed appreciation of his past work in Transformers and sparse models.

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