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AlphaFold Co-Creator John Jumper Leaves DeepMind for Anthropic

June 19, 2026 at 17:58 EDT

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John Jumper, a senior research scientist and VP at Google DeepMind and a co-creator of AlphaFold, said on June 19, 2026, that he is leaving the company after nearly nine years to join the AI startup Anthropic. He plans to take some time off before starting the new role.

June 19, 2026 · AI Talent Race

Nobel Laureate John Jumper Leaves Google DeepMind for Anthropic

The co-creator of AlphaFold departs after nearly nine years to join the maker of Claude — a move read as the next wave of the high-stakes contest for elite AI scientists.

~9 yrs

At Google DeepMind (2017 – June 2026)

2024

Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold

200M+

Protein structures predicted & released

AlphaFold's leap: from months to hours

For biologists, determining a single protein structure once took months. AlphaFold compressed it to hours — dramatically accelerating hypothesis testing.

Months

Traditional methods

→

Hours

With AlphaFold2

The move at a glance

From

Google DeepMind

VP / Director — led AlphaFold

→

Anthropic

Maker of Claude — joining after a break

Why it matters

Seen as the next wave of "AI for science" — pairing Jumper's biology and chemistry expertise with a safety-focused lab.

The concern

Part of a string of high-profile DeepMind departures, raising questions over continued AlphaFold development at Google.

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