Google Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer to join IPO-bound OpenAI

June 17 (Reuters) – Noam Shazeer, a vice president of engineering at Google and co-lead of its Gemini artificial intelligence models, said on Wednesday that he will leave the company to join IPO-bound ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

• Shazeer’s move comes as leading AI firms compete for talent while racing to develop advanced models.

• The surprise departure comes less than two years after Google reportedly paid $2.7 billion to bring Shazeer, the former head of startup Character.AI, back to the company along with a team of his researchers.

• The timing of Shazeer’s departure from Google was not immediately clear.

• In 2024, Google appointed Shazeer to co-lead the development of its Gemini AI model, and he has been credited as key figure behind Gemini’s ability to close the gap on OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

• “I’m incredibly proud of the amazing team at Google and everything we’ve built together,” Shazeer said on X, adding that he was “excited” to join OpenAI.

• “We are grateful for Noam’s meaningful contributions to Google over the years,” Google said in a statement to Reuters.

• Shazeer joined Google in 2000 and was a co-author of a seminal 2017 research paper that catalyzed the AI boom.

(Reporting by Mrinmay Dey in Mexico City and Kenrick Cai in San Francisco; Editing by Rashmi Aich and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)