John Jumper, the chemist and computer scientist who won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on AlphaFold, announced Friday he is leaving Google DeepMind to join Anthropic. The move comes after nearly a decade at Google.
Jumper spearheaded the AlphaFold team, an AI system that predicts a protein's 3D structure from its amino acid sequence. That technology represented a major breakthrough in medical and biological research, enabling scientists to understand protein design in greater detail.
Tech giants including Meta and Alphabet, along with upstarts such as Anthropic and OpenAI, are locked in a talent war as they race to build next-generation AI systems. Jumper is the latest Silicon Valley name to jump ship for the AI startup darling.
"The entire GDM team taught me so much about how to do great science," Jumper wrote in an X post Friday. "GDM is a special place, and I'll still be excited to hear about what amazing things they discover next."
His departure raises questions about how DeepMind will retain top researchers as competition for AI talent intensifies. The move also signals Anthropic's aggressive push to recruit elite scientists.