Transformer co-author Noam Shazeer leaves Google for OpenAI

Noam Shazeer, a co-lead of Google's Gemini generative AI models and a vice president, has left the company to join OpenAI, it emerged on June 18, 2026. Shazeer himself said he was departing Google and looked forward to working with OpenAI's "exceptional team." According to multiple reports, he is expected to join OpenAI as an architecture research lead. No official comment from Google has been confirmed at this time.