Google paid $2.7 billion to rehire AI legend; now quitting to join rival OpenAI: ‘It was a tough decision’ | Today’s news
Noam Shazeer, Google’s vice president of engineering and co-lead of its Gemini artificial intelligence models, has announced that he is leaving the company to join OpenAI.
Sharing the news on X, Shazeer wrote: “I’m excited to share that I’m joining OpenAI and look forward to working with the exceptional team there.”
The American computer scientist described this step as difficult and expressed his gratitude to his colleagues at Google.
“It was a difficult decision to move on. I’m incredibly proud of the amazing team at Google and everything we’ve built together. It’s been an honor and a pleasure to work with all of you,” he added.
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Exit is causing surprise throughout the AI industry
Shazeer’s departure quickly became a major topic of discussion online, with many users calling it a significant setback for Google.
The move drew particular attention because Google spent $2.7 billion on a licensing deal with Character.AI in 2024, a deal that also brought Shazeer back to the company.
His announcement came less than two years after that return.
From Google to Character.AI and back again
Shazeer first left Google in 2021 after the company decided not to release a conversational chatbot he helped develop.
After his departure, he co-founded Character.AI, which became one of the most prominent artificial intelligence start-ups.
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In 2024, Google signed a $2.7 billion deal with Character.AI. The deal included a license to use the start-up’s technology and resulted in Shazeer and several members of his team rejoining Google.
At the time, a Wall Street Journal report suggested that bringing Shazeer back was one of the key reasons behind the deal.
One of the pioneers of modern AI
Shazeer, 48, was one of Google’s first employees and is widely regarded as one of the leading figures in artificial intelligence research.
In 2017, he co-authored the influential research paper “Attention Is All You Need” with seven other Google researchers. The paper introduced the transformer architecture that forms the basis of many of today’s advanced artificial intelligence systems.
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Social networks are responding
Shazeer’s post announcing his switch to OpenAI garnered widespread attention online. The post was viewed more than 1.5 million times within hours.
Many users called the move one of the biggest talent moves in the AI industry this year.
“This is probably the biggest AI talent move this year. Makes you wonder what’s going on at Google,” wrote one X user.
Tech entrepreneur Yuchen Jin called it “brutal news for Gemini” and added: “Noam Shazeer, the AI legend that Google paid for $2.7 billion two years ago, has left Google to join OpenAI.”
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman also welcomed this move.
“Noam is one of the people I most wanted to work with since the very beginning of OpenAI. It only took 10 years. I think it will be worth the wait!” Altman wrote on X.
Another user highlighted the extent of Google’s investment in bringing back Shazeer, writing: “Google paid $2.7 billion to get him for 24 and can’t keep him 18 months later. That’s pretty crazy. I don’t even know a good sports analogy that works here. It seems like they recruited AI Jesus.”