Alphabet stock drops 6.6% after two AI leaders depart

Alphabet shares fell 6.6% to $343.47 in Monday trading after the company announced two senior AI researchers would depart and investors reacted to rising AI spending.

John Jumper, a lead scientist at Google DeepMind, posted on X that he will leave after nearly nine years to join Anthropic. Jumper is a co-creator of AlphaFold, the AI system that predicted more than 200 million protein structures. He and DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for work related to AlphaFold. Jumper wrote: “After nearly nine years, I have decided to leave Google DeepMind and join Anthropic.”

Hassabis reflected on Jumper’s work, writing: “What we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world, and showed the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine, lighting the way for how AI can benefit humanity.”

Noam Shazeer, who served as vice president of engineering and co-led Google’s Gemini model family, announced he will move to OpenAI. Google spent about $2.7 billion in 2024 to bring Shazeer back under a deal with Character.AI.

Investors said the consecutive departures raised questions about Alphabet’s ability to retain top AI talent as companies compete for a small pool of researchers. Anthropic and OpenAI are among the firms recruiting experienced AI scientists, and Meta and other technology companies are also hiring researchers and engineers.

Alphabet’s expansion of AI services has required large investments in data centers, specialized chips and other computing infrastructure. Some investors expressed concern that demand for computing capacity could exceed Alphabet’s ability to monetize new AI products and services quickly enough to offset rising expenses. Analysts are focused on the company’s cost structure and the timing of revenue from AI initiatives.

The company continues to report substantial profits and cash flow, which fund investment in AI infrastructure and cloud computing. The departures of Jumper and Shazeer come as Alphabet balances long-term research projects with efforts to commercialize its AI tools.