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John Jumper, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry for the AlphaFold protein-prediction model, will leave Google DeepMind to join Anthropic, both companies confirmed Friday. Jumper announced the move in a post on X, saying he would depart after nearly nine years and take time off before starting at the Claude maker. His exit lands one day after Noam Shazeer, a co-lead of Google's Gemini models, said he would leave for OpenAI, giving Alphabet two high-profile research departures inside 48 hours.
"After nearly nine years, I have decided to leave Google DeepMind and join Anthropic," Jumper wrote, crediting DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis for "a real chance letting me lead the AlphaFold team just six months after finishing my PhD." Jumper serves as a vice president and engineering fellow at the lab, according to his LinkedIn profile, and had been working on AI coding before his departure, Bloomberg reported. Neither he nor Anthropic disclosed what role he will take.
Key Takeaways
- John Jumper, the 2024 chemistry Nobel laureate and AlphaFold co-creator, is leaving Google DeepMind for Anthropic after nearly nine years.
- His exit lands one day after Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer left for OpenAI, two senior research losses for Google in 48 hours.
- The hire deepens Anthropic's life-sciences push, following its $400 million stock purchase of biotech startup Coefficient Bio in April.
- Jumper had worked on AI coding, where Google has struggled to turn research into enterprise products against Claude Code and Codex.
AI-generated summary, reviewed by an editor. More on our AI guidelines.
Hassabis, who shared the prize with Jumper, replied publicly on X, thanking him for "an extraordinary partnership" and saying AlphaFold "changed the world, and showed the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine." The two won the 2024 chemistry Nobel for AlphaFold2, a model that predicts a protein's three-dimensional structure from its amino acid sequence. The system has generated more than 200 million structure predictions and has been used by more than two million people across 190 countries, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Jumper, born in 1985 in Little Rock, Arkansas, earned a Marshall Scholarship in 2007 and a PhD in theoretical chemistry from the University of Chicago in 2017, and was the youngest chemistry laureate in more than seven decades.
The back-to-back exits compound a run of senior losses at Google's AI lab. Shazeer co-authored the 2017 "Attention Is All You Need" paper that underpins modern large language models, and rejoined Google in 2024 through a licensing deal that valued his startup Character.AI at about $2.5 billion. DeepMind also lost David Silver, a lead researcher on AlphaGo and AlphaZero, who left to start his own company focused on reinforcement learning and world models.
Jumper had been working on AI coding, an area where Google has struggled to convert its research into business products. Employees and executives at DeepMind have raised concerns in recent months that the company lacks a clear enterprise coding offering, Bloomberg reported, while Anthropic's Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex have driven both startups' momentum with enterprise customers. "There is so much demand for limited AI research talent that the frontier AI research labs are willing to do whatever it takes to add them," D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said, adding that Anthropic and OpenAI can promise "less bureaucracy and a more focused effort" than a company the size of Google.
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For Anthropic, the hire signals a deeper move into life sciences. The company paid $400 million in stock for Coefficient Bio in April, a stealth biotech startup with fewer than 10 employees, most of them former Genentech computational biology researchers, according to reports of the deal. Eric Kauderer-Abrams, who leads Anthropic's healthcare and life sciences division, has said he wants "a meaningful percentage of all of the life science work in the world to run on Claude." Jumper's expertise is in protein structure prediction, the decades-old problem AlphaFold solved.
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Anthropic closed a financing round last month at a $965 billion valuation and has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, according to CNBC. Google DeepMind remains a large research operation; it spun off Isomorphic Labs to pursue AI-designed drug candidates now entering clinical trials. A Google DeepMind spokesperson said the company was "grateful for John's significant contributions to Google DeepMind's work in advancing science and AI" and wished him well.
Jumper said he would be "taking some time to recharge" before starting at Anthropic. The company is hosting a science event on June 30, and did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on his role.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is John Jumper?
John Jumper is a chemist and computer scientist who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Demis Hassabis for AlphaFold, an AI system that predicts protein structures. He served as a vice president and engineering fellow at Google DeepMind, where he led the AlphaFold team. Born in 1985, he was the youngest chemistry laureate in more than seven decades.
Why is Jumper leaving Google DeepMind?
Jumper did not give a specific reason, thanking DeepMind and Hassabis in his announcement. His exit follows reports that DeepMind staff worry the company lacks a clear enterprise AI coding product, an area where Anthropic and OpenAI have gained momentum. Analyst Gil Luria said frontier labs can offer researchers less bureaucracy than large companies like Google.
What will Jumper do at Anthropic?
Neither Jumper nor Anthropic has disclosed his role. He said he would take time to recharge before starting. The hire aligns with Anthropic's expansion into life sciences, suggesting his protein-structure and computational-biology expertise could anchor that effort. Anthropic is hosting a science event on June 30.
How does this connect to Noam Shazeer's departure?
Shazeer, a co-lead of Google's Gemini models and co-author of the 2017 'Attention Is All You Need' paper, announced he was leaving for OpenAI one day before Jumper's news. Together the two exits gave Alphabet two high-profile research losses within 48 hours, intensifying scrutiny of Google's ability to retain elite AI talent.
What is AlphaFold and why does it matter?
AlphaFold2 is an AI model that predicts a protein's three-dimensional structure from its amino acid sequence, solving a decades-old scientific problem. It has generated more than 200 million structure predictions and been used by over two million people across 190 countries, accelerating research on drugs, vaccines, and disease, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
AI-generated summary, reviewed by an editor. More on our AI guidelines.
Marcus Schuler
Editor-in-Chief and founder of Implicator.ai. Former ARD correspondent and senior broadcast journalist with 10+ years covering tech. Writes daily briefings on policy and market developments. Based in San Francisco. E-mail: editor@implicator.ai
