Nobel laureate John Jumper leaves Google DeepMind for Anthropic after nearly nine years

Nobel laureate John Jumper is leaving DeepMind for rival Anthropic

John Jumper, who shared a recent Nobel Prize in chemistry, announced Friday that he's making the leap to Anthropic after "nearly 9 years" at Google DeepMind. In a post on X, Jumper wrote that DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis "took a real chance letting me lead the AlphaFold team just six months after finishing my PhD, and the entire GDM team taught me so much about how to do great science." Jumper (pictured above right, with Hassabis) added, "GDM is a special place, and I'll still be excited to hear about what amazing things they discover next." Bloomberg reports that Jumper was a key member of Google's team developing coding tools, which the company has struggled to sell to businesses. Character AI co-founder Noam Shazeer also announced this week that he's leaving DeepMind -- though in Shazeer's case, he's joining OpenAI. Jumper and Hassabis won the Nobel Prize in 2024 for their work on AlphaFold, an AI model that can predict the 3D structure of proteins based on their genetic sequences.

US scientist John Jumper to leave Google DeepMind for Anthropic

June 19 (Reuters) - Senior research scientist John Jumper said on Friday he would leave Google DeepMind to join AI startup Anthropic, the latest high-profile departure at the Big Tech giant's AI research and development division. Jumper, who won a Nobel prize alongside Google's Demis Hassabis in 2024, is best known as the co-creator of AlphaFold, a breakthrough AI that has predicted over 200 million protein structures, cutting years off 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. Technology giants including Meta (META.O), opens new tab and Alphabet (GOOGL.O), opens new tab, along with AI upstarts such as Anthropic and OpenAI are locked in a fierce talent war, competing for elite researchers as they race to build next-generation AI systems. Jumper's surprise departure comes just days after Noam Shazeer, a vice president of engineering at Google and co-lead of its Gemini AI models, said he would leave the company to join IPO-bound OpenAI. "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," Hassabis said in a reply to Jumper's post. Jumper serves as VP, Engineering Fellow, at Google DeepMind, according to his LinkedIn page. He is moving to Anthropic at a time when the startup is embroiled ⁠in a high-stakes legal and regulatory battle with the U.S. government. Anthropic is hosting a science event on June 30. The startup did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment ⁠regarding Jumper's new role. In the X post, Jumper described Google DeepMind as a "special place" and indicated his continued interest in its future discoveries. "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," a Google DeepMind spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed response. Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Andrea Ricci Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

John Jumper to leave Google DeepMind for Anthropic

Senior research scientist John Jumper said on Friday he would leave Google DeepMind to join AI startup Anthropic, the latest high-profile departure at the Big Tech giant's AI research and development division. Jumper, who won a Nobel prize alongside Google's Demis Hassabis in 2024, is best known as the co-creator of AlphaFold, a breakthrough AI that has predicted over 200 million protein structures, cutting years off 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. Technology giants including Meta and Alphabet, along with AI upstarts such as Anthropic and OpenAI are locked in a fierce talent war, competing for elite researchers as they race to build next-generation AI systems. Jumper's surprise departure comes just days after Noam Shazeer, a vice president of engineering at Google and co-lead of its Gemini AI models, said he would leave the company to join IPO-bound OpenAI. "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," Hassabis said in a reply to Jumper's post. Jumper serves as VP, Engineering Fellow, at Google DeepMind, according to his LinkedIn page. He is moving to Anthropic at a time when the startup is embroiled in a high-stakes legal and regulatory battle with the U.S. government. Anthropic is hosting a science event on June 30. The startup did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment regarding Jumper's new role. In the X post, Jumper described Google DeepMind as a "special place" and indicated his continued interest in its future discoveries. "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," a Google DeepMind spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed response.

Nobel laureate John Jumper is leaving Google DeepMind for Anthropic after nearly nine years

John Jumper, who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold, is leaving Google DeepMind after nine years to join Anthropic. John Jumper, the Google DeepMind vice president who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for creating AlphaFold, is leaving the company after nearly nine years to join Anthropic. Jumper announced the move on X on Thursday, saying he would take some time to recharge before starting at the Claude maker. Both Google DeepMind and Anthropic confirmed the departure. "Demis Hassabis took a real chance letting me lead the AlphaFold team just six months after finishing my PhD," Jumper wrote. Hassabis, who shared the Nobel Prize with Jumper, responded publicly: "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." The departure lands one day after Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer announced he was leaving Google for OpenAI, making this the second landmark talent loss for Google's AI operation in 48 hours. Shazeer co-authored the 2017 "Attention Is All You Need" paper that underpins virtually every modern large language model. Google reportedly paid $2.7 billion to bring him back from Character.AI less than two years ago. Jumper shared half the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Hassabis for developing AlphaFold2, an AI system that can predict the three-dimensional structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences. The other half went to University of Washington professor David Baker for computational protein design. AlphaFold2 has been used by more than two million scientists across 190 countries since its release, accelerating research on malaria vaccines, cancer treatments, and drug-resistant bacteria. Before joining DeepMind, Jumper earned a Marshall Scholarship to study at Cambridge and completed a PhD in theoretical chemistry at the University of Chicago. He was born in 1985, making him the youngest chemistry Nobel laureate in more than 70 years when he received the prize. Neither Anthropic nor Jumper has disclosed what role he will take at the company. But the hire aligns with Anthropic's expanding push into life sciences and computational biology. In April, Anthropic paid $400 million in stock for Coefficient Bio, a stealth biotech startup with fewer than 10 employees, most of them former Genentech computational biology researchers. That acquisition brought domain expertise in protein design and biomolecule modelling into Anthropic's healthcare and life sciences division, led by Eric Kauderer-Abrams, who has said he wants "a meaningful percentage of all of the life science work in the world to run on Claude." Adding a Nobel laureate whose work fundamentally changed how the field understands protein structure would give that ambition considerable scientific credibility. The timing also matters for Google. Bloomberg has reported that employees and executives at DeepMind have raised concerns in recent months that the company lacks a clear solution for businesses seeking AI coding tools, an area where Anthropic and OpenAI have built significant momentum. Anthropic's Claude Code has driven much of the company's recent revenue growth, and engineers at DeepMind have been leaving for Anthropic at a ratio of nearly 11 to 1, according to industry analyses. Google DeepMind remains a formidable research operation. It spun off Isomorphic Labs to pursue AI-designed drug candidates now entering clinical trials, and its Gemini models power products used by more than a million people across the Pentagon alone. A spokesperson said the company was "grateful for his contributions to DeepMind's work in advancing science and AI." But the back-to-back departures of Jumper and Shazeer raise a question that Google's retention spending has not been able to answer. Shazeer left despite a deal reportedly worth billions. Jumper leaves with a Nobel Prize bearing DeepMind's name. If neither prestige nor money can hold the people who built the company's most celebrated achievements, the problem may not be compensation. For Anthropic, the hire is a statement about where the company is heading. Jumper's expertise sits at the intersection of AI and fundamental science, a domain Anthropic has been investing in aggressively but has not yet proven it can lead. Whether the AlphaFold creator can replicate that kind of breakthrough outside the lab that made it possible is something neither his Nobel Prize nor his new employer's valuation can guarantee.

Nobel Prize winner John Jumper quits Google DeepMind after nearly a decade; set to join Anthropic

Nobel laureate John Jumper, a key figure behind the groundbreaking AlphaFold AI, is departing Google DeepMind after nearly nine years. He announced his move to rival AI firm Anthropic on X. Jumper's departure underscores the intense competition for top AI talent as startups like Anthropic vie with tech giants for leading researchers. Nobel Prize-winning artificial intelligence (AI) researcher John Jumper is leaving Google DeepMind after nearly nine years to join Anthropic, marking the latest high-profile move in Silicon Valley's intensifying AI talent race. Announcing the decision on X, Jumper wrote, "A bit of news: After nearly 9 years, I have decided to leave Google DeepMind and join Anthropic (after taking some time to recharge). I am incredibly grateful for my time at GDM." "@demishassabis took a real chance letting me lead the AlphaFold team just six months after finishing my PhD, and the entire GDM team taught me so much about how to do great science. GDM is a special place, and I'll still be excited to hear about what amazing things they discover next," he wrote. Jumper joined Google DeepMind nearly a decade ago and went on to co-develop AlphaFold alongside DeepMind cofounder and chief executive Demis Hassabis. The pair shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on the breakthrough AI system. AlphaFold is an AI system that solved a decades-old scientific challenge by accurately predicting the 3D structures of proteins from their amino acid sequences. The achievement transformed computational biology, accelerating research into diseases and the development of new medicines. His move comes as leading AI startups such as Anthropic and OpenAI continue to attract top talent from major technology companies, including Google and Meta, amid fierce competition in the sector.