Breaking

Alphabet Shares Fall as DeepMind's Shazeer and Jumper Exit

June 22, 2026 at 12:07 EDT

Recruiting & HR
Foundation Models
Funding & M&A

Shares of Google parent Alphabet fell as much as 7.2% on Monday, June 22, 2026, the steepest intraday drop since February, after two prominent AI leaders at Google DeepMind departed for rivals in quick succession.

June 18, 2026 · AI Talent Wars

Gemini Co-Lead Noam Shazeer Quits Google for OpenAI

The co-author of the landmark "Attention Is All You Need" Transformer paper exits Google — pressuring Alphabet shares and underscoring the fierce contest for top AI talent.

$2.7B

Google's 2024 talent deal to bring Shazeer back — now seen as not paying off

~1.5 yr

Time at Google after the reacquisition before departing again

2017

Year of the Transformer paper he co-authored, the basis of modern generative AI

A $2.7B bet that didn't hold

Google's two-year talent investment vs. the time it secured Shazeer before he left for a rival.

$2.7B

Invested
(2024)

→

~1.5 yr

Retained
before exit

A pattern of high-profile exits

Noam Shazeer

Google VP / Gemini co-lead → OpenAI

John Jumper

Nobel laureate, DeepMind → Anthropic

Calmer view

One departure rarely changes fundamentals. Analysts see limited impact on Alphabet stock, and credit the strength of its cash-flow base.

Concern

Amid record AI capex and an $8B share sale, talent retention worries resurface — alongside long-standing doubts over Gemini's edge in AI coding.

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