# Google Gemini Co-Lead Noam Shazeer Joins OpenAI in Major AI Talent Coup

*2026-06-23 18:02 UTC · Technology · 1 min read*

> Noam Shazeer, co-author of the foundational Transformer paper and Google Gemini co-lead, leaves Google DeepMind to join OpenAI in a landmark move in the AI talent wars.

Noam Shazeer, Google's VP of Engineering and co-lead of its flagship Gemini AI models, announced on June 18 that he is leaving Google DeepMind to join OpenAI. Shazeer is one of the most consequential figures in modern AI — he co-authored the landmark 2017 paper "Attention Is All You Need," which introduced the Transformer architecture that underpins virtually every major language model today, from GPT to Gemini itself.

The move marks a dramatic shift in the AI talent landscape. Google had paid approximately $2.7 billion in 2024 to bring Shazeer back from Character.AI, the company he founded and led as CEO after leaving Google in 2021. Despite that expensive reunion, Shazeer announced his departure just two years into his return, with his new role at OpenAI not yet formally specified.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman welcomed the hire effusively, calling Shazeer "one of the people I have most wanted to work with since the very beginning of OpenAI" and describing the partnership as "only 10 years in the making." Google, meanwhile, said it is "grateful for Noam's meaningful contributions over the years."

## Sources

- [benzinga.com](https://www.benzinga.com/markets/tech/26/06/53269428/google-gemini-co-lead-noam-shazeer-joins-openai-sam-altman-says-its-10-years-in-the-making)
- [9to5google.com](https://9to5google.com/2026/06/17/geminis-co-lead-is-leaving-google-to-join-openai/)

---
TechTools News · https://techtools.cz/tools/news/article/1878-google-gemini-co-lead-noam-shazeer-joins-openai-in-major-ai-talent-coup
Česká verze: https://techtools.cz/tools/news/clanek/1951-spolusef-google-gemini-noam-shazeer-prechazi-do-openai-prelomovy-pohyb-ve-valce