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

(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. Source: https://www.reuters.com/technology/googles-gemini-co-lead-noam-shazeer-join-openai-2026-06-18/