Google Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer joins OpenAI
Noam Shazeer, Google's VP of engineering and co-lead of its Gemini AI models, announced he is leaving Google to join OpenAI, less than two years after returning to the company.
Score breakdown
Shazeer's move from Gemini co-lead to OpenAI is a direct talent loss for Google's flagship AI model effort, arriving weeks after a major product showcase and amid OpenAI's IPO preparations.
- 01Noam Shazeer, Google's VP of engineering and Gemini co-lead, announced he is joining OpenAI.
- 02Shazeer announced the move in a post on X, calling it a 'difficult decision.'
- 03Google brought Shazeer back in August 2024 as part of a partnership with startup Character.AI.
Noam Shazeer, Google's vice president of engineering and a co-lead of its Gemini AI models, announced Wednesday that he is departing Google to join OpenAI. In a post on X, Shazeer said he was "excited" to join OpenAI and called it a "difficult decision to move on," adding that he was "incredibly proud" of the team and work at Google. The article was reported by Lee Ying Shan and Jennifer Elias for CNBC.
They had originally departed because Google declined to aggressively pursue a chatbot project they championed.
Shazeer's return to Google had itself been notable: in August 2024, Google brought him back — along with fellow researcher Daniel De Freitas — to its DeepMind AI unit as part of a partnership with Character.AI, the startup the two had founded after leaving Google in 2021. They had originally departed because Google declined to aggressively pursue a chatbot project they championed. The departure comes weeks after Google unveiled new AI products at its annual I/O developer conference, including its Gemini 3.5 Flash model and Gemini Spark AI agent. OpenAI, meanwhile, confidentially filed for an IPO earlier in June 2026, setting the stage for what the article describes as one of the most closely watched technology listings in recent years.
Key facts
- 01Noam Shazeer, Google's VP of engineering and Gemini co-lead, announced he is joining OpenAI.
- 02Shazeer announced the move in a post on X, calling it a 'difficult decision.'
- 03Google brought Shazeer back in August 2024 as part of a partnership with startup Character.AI.
- 04Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas co-founded Character.AI after leaving Google in 2021 over a declined chatbot project.
- 05The departure comes weeks after Google unveiled the Gemini 3.5 Flash model and Gemini Spark AI agent at Google I/O.
- 06OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO earlier in June 2026.
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