John Jumper, a vice president at Google DeepMind who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on artificial intelligence, is leaving the company to join Anthropic PBC.
Jumper has been a key member of Google’s AI coding development team, and his departure further strains the tech giant’s efforts to compete with Anthropic, OpenAI, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX in the race to build the most powerful AI models. Google has struggled to sell AI coding tools to businesses, according to former employees.
Jumper’s Departure Confirmed
A spokesperson for Google DeepMind confirmed Jumper’s exit and said the company was grateful for his contributions to DeepMind’s work in advancing science and AI. An Anthropic spokesperson confirmed Jumper will join the company.
“After nearly 9 years, I have decided to leave Google DeepMind and join Anthropic,” Jumper posted on X. “Demis Hassabis took a real chance letting me lead the AlphaFold team just six months after finishing my PhD.”
Nobel-Winning Achievement
Jumper won the chemistry Nobel alongside DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis for creating AlphaFold, an AI model that can predict the structure of proteins. “Thanks John for an extraordinary partnership and wonderful collaboration over the past nine years,” Hassabis wrote on X. “What we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world, and showed the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine, lighting the way for how AI can benefit humanity.”
Broader AI Talent Shifts
Jumper is leaving DeepMind after one of Google’s most prominent researchers, Noam Shazeer, left for OpenAI. Shazeer co-authored a seminal paper that helped catalyze the AI boom. His departure marked a big win for OpenAI as it competes with Anthropic to develop ever-more sophisticated models before their initial public offerings.
Background
Employees and executives at DeepMind have also raised concerns in recent months that the company doesn’t have a clear solution for businesses seeking AI coding tools, which have become a key focus of Anthropic and OpenAI and have driven both companies’ momentum. Jumper won a Marshall Scholarship to study at Cambridge in 2007 and received a PhD in theoretical chemistry from the University of Chicago.
