Google’s VP of Engineering and co-head of AI model development Gemini, Noam Shazeer, has announced he is leaving Google to join OpenAI.
The move comes less than two years after Shazeer returned to Google.
In August 2024, he and AI researcher Daniel De Freitas were rehired to DeepMind’s AI unit through a partnership between Google and Character.AI, the company they founded after leaving Google in 2021.
The two had previously left Google after the company dropped a chatbot project they were developing. They went on to found Character.AI, which has grown to become one of the most influential AI startups in the industry.
Shazeer’s departure highlights the intensifying competition for top AI talent as global tech companies race to strengthen their positions in the artificial intelligence sector.
The development also comes just weeks after Google introduced new AI products including Gemini 3.5 Flash and the Gemini Spark AI agent.
At the same time, OpenAI has reportedly taken the initial steps towards an initial public listing (IPO), which has the potential to be one of the largest and most high-profile technology listings in recent years.
