Noam Shazeer, vice president of engineering at Google and co-lead of the Gemini AI model project, announced on June 17, 2026, that he will leave Google to join OpenAI [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. Shazeer shared the news on social media platform X, saying, "I'm incredibly proud of the amazing team at Google and everything we've built together. It has been an honor and a pleasure to work with all of you. I'm excited to join OpenAI" [1]. He also posted in Chinese expressing excitement to join OpenAI’s team [8].

Shazeer has played a crucial role in Google's AI efforts since joining in 2000, including co-authoring the seminal 2017 paper ‘Attention Is All You Need,’ which introduced the Transformer architecture foundational to AI language models today [1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. After leaving Google in 2021, he co-founded startup Character.AI, specializing in chatbot technology [1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9]. In August 2024, Google paid about $2.7 billion to reacquire Shazeer and the Character.AI team under a partnership agreement, appointing him co-lead of the Gemini AI models development and integrating him into DeepMind's AI unit [1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9]. Shazeer has been credited with helping Gemini close the technology gap with OpenAI's ChatGPT [1, 2, 4, 7, 9].

Google issued an official statement expressing gratitude for Shazeer’s significant contributions over the years [1, 2, 4, 7, 9]. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said, "We have had a desire to cooperate with Noam since OpenAI's early days and look forward to his contributions" [9]. Sources note Shazeer will focus on researching new AI architectures at OpenAI, potentially beyond the Transformer framework [8, 9].

OpenAI is preparing for an initial public offering scheduled soon, with Shazeer’s arrival seen in this context [1, 2, 7, 9]. The exact date of Shazeer's departure from Google has not been confirmed [1, 2, 7]. His move comes amid intense competition in AI firms to recruit top talent [1, 4, 5, 7, 9].

Shazeer’s previous startup Character.AI remains a separate legal entity despite Google's partnership deal [5]. During his time at Google DeepMind, Shazeer faced some controversy over past statements related to social issues and workplace interactions [8]. The coming weeks are expected to clarify the timeline of Shazeer’s transition and role at OpenAI.