Google Set to Lose Two More Researchers to Anthropic After Earlier High-Profile Exits

Two senior artificial intelligence (AI) researchers who contributed heavily to Alphabet’s Gemini model plan to leave Google for rival Anthropic. Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel are set to depart the search giant, according to a Bloomberg report.

These planned exits threaten Google's standing in the sector amid a wave of high-profile resignations. Google, an early pioneer in AI, spent much of the current AI boom playing catch-up with rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic. However, the company hit its stride late last year with more capable models and chips. Adler focused on Google’s AI coding efforts, while Pritzel worked directly on training artificial intelligence systems.

Their pending departures follow the recent loss of Nobel laureate John Jumper, who is heading to Anthropic, and prominent researcher Noam Shazeer, who left for OpenAI.

Arthur Conmy, a senior research engineer who contributed to the Gemini 2.5 model and AI coding, also wrote on X Wednesday that he is joining Anthropic to work on AI safety.

Fierce Competition For Talent

Startups such as Anthropic and OpenAI offer lucrative pre-IPO equity packages to attract employees from larger competitors. Anthropic recently raised new funding at a $965 billion valuation, overtaking OpenAI, and is considering an initial public offering as soon as this autumn.

A 2025 analysis by venture capital firm SignalFire showed DeepMind engineers are nearly 11 times more likely to leave for Anthropic than the reverse.

Adler, Pritzel, Jumper and Shazeer did not respond to requests for comment. Anthropic declined to comment. A spokesperson for Google said the company remains confident in its position in the market for AI talent.

Google DeepMind Chief Executive Demis Hassabis addressed the industry attrition at an event in Cannes. Hassabis said there is a lot of movement of talent between all leading AI labs and that Google wins its fair share of top talent, adding that the market is extremely competitive and the most competitive it has ever been in the tech industry.

UK-based researchers face lengthy non-compete agreements under British law. Because of these restrictions, Jumper will likely not begin work at Anthropic until next year, according to the report.

Shazeer's Turbulent Google Tenure

Shazeer co-authored a seminal 2017 paper introducing the transformer technique. He left Google in 2021 to found the chatbot startup Character.AI, but rejoined the company in 2024 through an unusual licensing deal that valued his firm at $2.5 billion. Once back at Google, Shazeer co-led development of the company’s flagship Gemini AI model.

Internal resource conflicts preceded his recent exit to OpenAI. Shortly before Shazeer announced his departure, Google reassigned computing power dedicated to one of his projects to a London-based DeepMind team. The company shifted the resources to boost collaboration across teams and streamline pre-training.

Before leaving, Shazeer was developing a promising new AI architecture that remained based on the transformer model.

Current and former employees described Shazeer as an admired but divisive figure. His internal comments regarding transgender identity and the Gaza conflict stirred controversy among some Google staff.

DeepMind's Life Sciences Exodus

Jumper won the Nobel Prize for landmark research using AI to predict protein folding. Adler and Pritzel worked with him on that exact research before planning their own exits to Anthropic.

Key members of Jumper’s protein-folding team have recently left DeepMind. Some of those researchers shifted to Isomorphic Labs, an Alphabet spinout developing AI-designed drugs.

Anthropic is actively exploring applications in life sciences and healthcare to broaden the utility of its technology.