Noam Shazeer, a vice president in Google’s engineering organization and a development lead on the Gemini AI models, announced on Wednesday that he is leaving Google to join OpenAI, CNBC reported. According to the report, Shazeer will continue his work at the rival company.
Return to Google and prior partnerships
Shazeer had previously left Google in 2021 and, together with colleagues including Daniel De Freitas, co‑founded the startup Character.AI. In August 2024 Google rehired Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas and brought them into its DeepMind AI division. At the time of their return, Google also entered a partnership with Character.AI.
The immediate cause of their 2021 departures was, according to the two researchers, that Google did not take sufficiently seriously the chatbot development project they were advocating.
What the current departure signals
Shazeer’s latest resignation underscores the intense competition among major AI players for senior technical talent. The company that hired him, OpenAI — developer of ChatGPT — filed for a public offering in early June. That filing is expected to become one of the most closely watched IPOs in recent years, although some prominent investors are not uniformly optimistic about the company’s prospects.
Implications and significance
Movements of high‑profile engineers like Shazeer highlight that technology firms, especially in AI, continue to compete aggressively for expertise. The article does not specify direct effects on the Gemini program or on OpenAI’s product roadmap, but such senior hires typically influence teams’ knowledge bases and project priorities.
(The change was reported by CNBC.)
