Transformer co-author Noam Shazeer, Google's Gemini co-lead, leaves for OpenAI
On June 17, 2026 (US time; the X post is timestamped June 18 UTC) Noam Shazeer, co-author of "Attention Is All You Need", Google VP of engineering and co-lead of Gemini, announced he was leaving Google to join OpenAI. Google had paid about $2.7B in 2024 to license Character.AI's technology and bring him back. His exact OpenAI role was not disclosed.
Key facts
- Shazeer on X: 'I'm excited to share that I'll be joining OpenAI and look forward to working with the exceptional team there. It was a difficult decision to move on…' (~9.6M views, fxtwitter Oct 4)
- Google role: VP of engineering and Gemini co-lead since August 2024, after the Character.AI licensing deal (~$2.7B); earlier co-founded and ran Character.AI (2021–24) and spent ~two decades at Google before that
- Google: 'grateful for Noam's meaningful contributions to Google over the years' (9to5Google)
- OpenAI role not officially announced; some secondary outlets call him 'Lead for AI Architecture Research' (unverified)
- Context: Fortune later listed his June departure among setbacks for Gemini 3.5 Pro, which missed several deadlines before Demis Hassabis stepped aside in August
What happened
One of the most important architects of modern language models moved from Google, where he co-led Gemini, to its main rival, two years after Google paid billions in effect to rehire him. He gave no reason beyond calling it a difficult decision.
Why it matters
It was a significant talent loss for Google DeepMind during a difficult Gemini 3.5 cycle and a major hire for OpenAI's research organisation. It was one of the biggest moves in the 2026 talent war between frontier labs.
Changelog
- 2026-10-04: created (resolves people-registry lead)
People
Related posts (1)
- Noam Shazeer original ↗ Noam Shazeer @NoamShazeer · x · 2026-06-18
Cited as a source by: 2026-06-17-noam-shazeer-leaves-google-for-openai
Related events
- Demis Hassabis steps aside as Google DeepMind CEO; Koray Kavukcuoglu takes over, Jeff Dean leaves ★★★★
- 'Attention Is All You Need' introduces the Transformer ★★★★★
Sources (4)
- officialNoam Shazeer on X
- pressCNBC: Google Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer leaves for OpenAI
- press9to5Google: Gemini's co-lead is leaving Google to join OpenAI
- pressAxios: Top AI researcher leaves Google for OpenAI
id: 2026-06-17-noam-shazeer-leaves-google-for-openai · updated 2026-10-04 · open in the interactive timeline