Senior research scientist John Jumper said Friday he would leave Google DeepMind to join Anthropic, the latest high-profile departure from the tech giant’s AI research division.
Jumper, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, is best known as the co-creator of AlphaFold, an AI system that has predicted more than 200 million protein structures and significantly accelerated biological and medical research.
“After nearly nine years, I have decided to leave Google DeepMind and join Anthropic,” Jumper said in a post on X, describing DeepMind as a “special place” and saying he remains interested in its future discoveries.
Hassabis replied to the post, writing: “What we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world, and showed the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine, lighting the way for how AI can benefit humanity.”
A Google DeepMind spokesperson told Reuters: “We are grateful for John’s significant contributions to Google DeepMind’s work in advancing science and AI. We wish him well in his next chapter.”
Jumper’s departure comes just days after Noam Shazeer, a Google vice president of engineering and co-lead of its Gemini AI models, said he would leave the company to join OpenAI ahead of that company’s planned IPO. The moves underscore an intensifying talent war among Meta, Alphabet, Anthropic and OpenAI as the companies compete for top AI researchers in the race to build next-generation systems.
Jumper had served as a vice president and engineering fellow at Google DeepMind, according to his LinkedIn profile. Anthropic is scheduled to host a science-focused event on June 30. The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Jumper’s new role.