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OpenAI has hired Noam Shazeer, one of the leading minds behind Google's Gemini AI model. The development highlights the growing battle among technology companies to secure world-class AI expertise.
While the rest of the world grapples with fears of job loss, AI talent is in an enviable position. Last year, in a bid to boost its AI efforts, Mark Zuckerberg led Meta to acquire Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang to lead its Superintelligence Lab.
Noam Shazeer, the vice president of engineering and a co-lead of its Gemini AI models, announced that he's joining ChatGPT maker OpenAI. "I'm excited to share that I'll be joining OpenAI and look forward to working with the exceptional team there," Shazeer said in a post on X.
One of Time Magazine's 100 most influential people in the AI world, Shazeer, was brought back to Google in 2024 for $2.7 billion through an acqui-hire arrangement after he left the tech giant in 2021 to start his own company, Character.AI. Shazeer had quit in 2021 as the search giant had refused to release a chatbot he had developed.
"It was a difficult decision to move on. 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," Shazeer said on his second exit from Google.
Sam Altman, the co-founder and CEO of OpenAI, replied to Shazeer's post. Altman said, "Noam is one of the people I have most wanted to work with since the very beginning of OpenAI. Only took 10 years. I think it will be worth the wait!"
Shazeer's appointment comes as a shot in the arm for OpenAI in the run-up to its imminent IPO (initial public offering), as the key hire will bolster market confidence. Last month, OpenAI confidentially filed for an IPO. Rival Anthropic has also confidentially filed for an IPO.
The departure also comes weeks after Google unveiled new AI products, including its Gemini 3.5 Flash model and Gemini Spark AI agent, at its annual I/O developer conference.
Noam Shazeer's move highlights how critical top AI talent has become in the race for artificial intelligence leadership. While OpenAI gains a highly respected researcher, Google faces the challenge of retaining key innovators as competition among major AI companies intensifies.
