Alphabet (GOOGL) shares fell nearly 5% in trading Monday after Google confirmed the departure of one of its most influential AI researchers, John Jumper, who will join artificial intelligence company Anthropic.
Jumper, who served as Vice President and Engineering Fellow at Google DeepMind, is leaving the company after nearly nine years.
He was a key figure behind the development of AlphaFold, an AI system capable of predicting protein structures and has had a major impact on global scientific research.
Alphabet said the company values Jumper's contributions to AI development and scientific research throughout his tenure.
His departure adds to a list of key talent leaving Google's AI division in recent months, including several senior leaders involved in the development of the Gemini AI model.
The development comes as competition in the AI industry intensifies, with companies such as Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta continuing to compete for the best talent to accelerate the development of the next generation of technology.
