Google DeepMind hires Bridgewater's Jasjeet Sekhon as chief strategy officer for AGI push

Exclusive: Bridgewater's chief scientist Sekhon to join Google's DeepMind AI unit

NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - Jasjeet Sekhon, a top Bridgewater Associates executive, is joining Google's artificial intelligence unit DeepMind as its chief strategy officer, DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis said on Wednesday. Sekhon, who served as chief scientist and head of AI, will join Bridgewater's board of directors after leaving his current roles there, according to a post, opens new tab by Hassabis on LinkedIn. Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O), opens new tab Google has narrowed the gap with ⁠AI market leaders OpenAI and Anthropic, after initially scrambling to retain the dominance it has long enjoyed in the search industry. Over the past year, Google's DeepMind unit has launched several new AI offerings, including an upgraded chatbot and AI model known as Gemini, as well as a new AI photo editor, Nano Banana. Google's advances in AI have helped the tech company's shares nearly double in value over the past year. Sekhon joined Bridgewater in 2018 and played a key role in building its AI research and investment lab called AIA Labs, which is led by the firm's Co-Chief ⁠Investment Officer Greg Jensen. Sekhon, who did not hold any investing responsibilities at Bridgewater, has previously held professorships at several U.S. universities, including Harvard, University of California, Berkeley, and most recently, Yale. Bridgewater, which is led by CEO Nir Bar Dea, posted the highest profit in its 50-year history in 2025, with its flagship fund Pure ⁠Alpha delivering a 34% return. It recently named Bob Prince, one of its CIOs and a firm veteran of four decades, as the chair of its board of directors. The hedge fund firm recently projected that technology companies ⁠led by Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft will collectively invest about $650 billion to scale up AI-related infrastructure this year. Bridgewater, which managed about $92 billion of assets at the end of September, operates ⁠numerous macro funds focused on various areas and regions, including the Pure Alpha fund, the All Weather fund, the Asia Total Return fund, the China Total Return fund, and the AIA Macro fund. Reporting by Anirban Sen in New York; Editing by Kenneth Li, Rod Nickel Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab * Suggested Topics: * Artificial Intelligence Anirban Sen Thomson Reuters Anirban Sen is the Editor in Charge of Market Structure at Reuters in New York where he leads the news agency's coverage of stock exchanges, and market-making firms including Jane Street and Citadel Securities. Previously Anirban was M&A Editor at Reuters, leading a team of reporters who regularly broke market-moving news about the biggest deals in corporate America. Some of his scoops have included Mars' $36 billion deal for snack maker Kellanova, design software firm Synopsys' $35 billion deal for Ansys, and buyout firm GTCR's $18.5 billion deal for merchant services provider Worldpay. In 2023, Anirban was part of a Reuters team that won a Gerald Loeb Award for the agency's coverage of the collapse of FTX. After starting with Reuters in Bangalore in 2009, he left in 2013 to work as a technology deals reporter in several leading business news outlets in India, including The Economic Times and Mint. Anirban rejoined Reuters in 2019 as Editor in Charge, Finance, to lead a team of reporters in India, covering everything from investment banking to venture capital.

Bridgewater's chief scientist Sekhon to join Google's DeepMind AI unit - The Economic Times

Sekhon, who served as chief scientist and head of AI, will join Bridgewater's board of directors after leaving his current roles there, according to a post by Hassabis on LinkedIn.Jasjeet Sekhon, a top Bridgewater Associates executive, is joining Google's artificial intelligence unit DeepMind as its chief strategy officer, DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis said on Wednesday. Sekhon, who served as chief scientist and head of AI, will join Bridgewater's board of directors after leaving his current roles there, according to a post by Hassabis on LinkedIn. Alphabet-owned ⁠Google ⁠has narrowed the gap with AI market leaders OpenAI and Anthropic, after initially scrambling to retain the dominance it has long enjoyed in the search industry. Over the past year, Google's DeepMind unit has launched several new AI offerings, including an upgraded chatbot and AI model known as Gemini, as well as a new AI photo editor, Nano Banana. Google's advances in AI have helped ⁠the tech company's shares nearly double in value over the past year. Sekhon joined Bridgewater in 2018 and played a key role in building its ⁠AI research and investment lab called AIA Labs, which is led by the firm's Co-Chief Investment Officer Greg Jensen. Sekhon, who did not hold any investing responsibilities at Bridgewater, has previously held professorships at several U.S. universities, including Harvard, University of California, Berkeley, and most recently, Yale. Bridgewater, which is led by CEO Nir Bar Dea, posted the highest profit in its 50-year history in 2025, with its flagship fund Pure Alpha delivering a 34% return. It recently named Bob Prince, one of its CIOs and a firm veteran of four decades, as the chair of its board ⁠of directors. The hedge fund firm recently projected that technology companies led by Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft will collectively invest about $650 billion to scale up AI-related infrastructure this year. Bridgewater, which managed about $92 billion of assets at the end of September, operates numerous macro funds focused on various areas and regions, including the Pure Alpha fund, the All Weather fund, the Asia Total Return fund, the China Total Return fund, and the AIA Macro fund.

Google DeepMind Hires New AI Chief Strategy Leader, Who Plans 'To Develop AGI Safely To Empower Humans'

As the AI model market heats up, Google DeepMind is seeking to get a leg up on the competition by hiring former Yale professor and Bridgewater Associates chief scientist as its new chief strategy officer. As Google seeks to win AI model market share from OpenAI and Anthropic, the company's AI unit, DeepMind, has hired Jasjeet Sekhon -- a former Harvard and Yale professor and Bridgewater Associates chief scientist -- as its new chief strategy officer. "AGI [artificial general intelligence] will be a world-changing technology without precedent, accelerating science, medicine and human productivity in profound ways. I am committed to shepherding this technology responsibly to benefit everyone," said Sekhon in a LinkedIn post Thursday. "I am joining Google DeepMind because I believe it is the frontier lab best positioned to develop AGI safely to empower humans," said Sekhon. Over the past year, Google DeepMind has launched several new AI models including its Gemini 3 Series, Gemini Deep Think, AlphaGenome, Nano Banana and SpeciesNet. [Related: Google-Wiz Innovation Plans: New AI Security Platform, Gemini Integration And Global Scale Ahead] Sekhon will work directly with DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis to continue to drive AI innovation and R&D efforts. The DeepMind CEO said on LinkedIn that he's "thrilled" to hire Sekhon as its new chief strategy officer, who will "partner with me on strategy cutting across research, commercialization, policy and more." Google DeepMind's new chief strategy officer previously held professorships at some of the world's top universities, including Harvard; University of California, Berkeley; and most recently a five-year stint as a data and political science professor at Yale. Alongside his professor roles, he spent the past eight years at investment management firm Bridgewater Associates as head of AI and chief scientist for its AIA Labs. "In 2023, I co-founded AIA Labs at Bridgewater alongside co-CIO Greg Jensen. I was drawn to developing AI for markets because markets are the ultimate game: They cannot be solved, and their benchmarks cannot be saturated," Sekhon said. "Today, AIA Labs manages billions of dollars and generates alpha in global markets," he said, adding that he will join Bridgewater Associates' board of directors. DeepMind CEO Hassabis said AGI has the potential to be the ultimate tool to accelerate science and medicine, as well as improve productivity. "The impact will be profound, but the challenges and complexities are also enormous," said Hassabis. "Thoughtfulness and foresight will be critical as we seek to steward this technology safely into the world to benefit everyone. "As part of our contribution to that effort, I'm thrilled to welcome Jas," he said. "Super excited to be working with Jas to accelerate this important work at such a critical time for this technology." DeepMind's new chief strategy officer says he's looking forward to his next chapter at Google. "I am deeply grateful to everyone at Bridgewater, Yale, Berkeley, and people across the AI community who have made the last several years so meaningful," Sekhon said. Google generated $114 billion in total revenue during the fourth quarter of 2025, representing an 18 percent increase year over year. Google's cloud and AI business, Google Cloud, generated $17.7 billion in total sales in the fourth quarter of 2025, up 48 percent year over year. "Google Cloud ended 2025 at an annual run rate of over $70 billion, representing a wide breadth of customers, driven by demand for AI products," said Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai during the company's fourth-quarter 2025 earnings report. "We're seeing our AI investments and infrastructure drive revenue and growth across the board," the CEO said. "To meet customer demand and capitalize on the growing opportunities we have ahead of us, our 2026 CapEx investments are anticipated to be in the range of $175 [billion] to $185 billion."

Google DeepMind Raids Bridgewater For Chief Scientist, Jasjeet Sekhon Says 'Excited' To Partner Directly With Hassabis - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)

DeepMind Bolsters Strategy With High-Profile Hire In a post on LinkedIn, DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis said, "Super excited to be working with Jas to accelerate this important work at such a critical time for this technology." Sekhon previously served as chief scientist and head of AI at Bridgewater Associates, where he helped build the firm's AIA Labs research unit. He will also join Bridgewater's board after stepping down from his operational roles. Sekhon also took to LinkedIn and said, "I am joining Google DeepMind because I believe it is the frontier lab best positioned to develop AGI safely to empower humans." Sekhon joined Bridgewater in 2018 and played a central role in advancing its AI-driven research initiatives. Google Ramps Up AI Push Against OpenAI, Anthropic The move comes as Google works to strengthen its position against rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic. These efforts have helped boost investor confidence. In the past 12 months, Alphabet Class A shares have been up by 87.74% while Class C shares gained 84.21%, according to Benzinga Pro. Price Action: On Wednesday, Alphabet Class A shares declined by 1.04% while Class C shares slipped by 1.01%. In after-hours trading, Class A and C shares slipped 0.062% and 0.11%, respectively. Photo Courtesy: Markus Mainka on Shutterstock.com Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.

Bridgewater's chief scientist Sekhon to join Google's DeepMind AI unit

NEW YORK, March 18 (Reuters) - Jasjeet Sekhon, a top Bridgewater Associates executive, is joining Google's artificial intelligence unit DeepMind as its chief strategy officer, DeepMind founder Demis Hassabis said on Wednesday. Sekhon, who served as chief scientist and head of AI, will join Bridgewater's board of directors after leaving his current roles there, according to a post by Hassabis on LinkedIn. Alphabet-owned Google has narrowed the gap with AI market leaders OpenAI and Anthropic, after initially scrambling to retain the dominance it has long enjoyed in the search industry. Over the past year, Google's DeepMind unit has launched several new AI offerings, including an upgraded chatbot and AI model known as Gemini, as well as a new AI photo editor, Nano Banana. Google's advances in AI have helped the tech company's shares nearly double in value over the past year. Sekhon joined Bridgewater in 2018 and played a key role in building its AI research and investment lab called AIA Labs, which is led by the firm's Co-Chief Investment Officer Greg Jensen. Sekhon, who did not hold any investing responsibilities at Bridgewater, has previously held professorships at several U.S. universities, including Harvard, University of California, Berkeley, and most recently, Yale. Bridgewater, which is led by CEO Nir Bar Dea, posted the highest profit in its 50-year history in 2025, with its flagship fund Pure Alpha delivering a 34% return. It recently named Bob Prince, one of its CIOs and a firm veteran of four decades, as the chair of its board of directors. The hedge fund firm recently projected that technology companies led by Alphabet, Amazon, Meta and Microsoft will collectively invest about $650 billion to scale up AI-related infrastructure this year. Bridgewater, which managed about $92 billion of assets at the end of September, operates numerous macro funds focused on various areas and regions, including the Pure Alpha fund, the All Weather fund, the Asia Total Return fund, the China Total Return fund, and the AIA Macro fund. (Reporting by Anirban Sen in New York; Editing by Kenneth Li, Rod Nickel)