Google loses more top AI researchers to Anthropic and OpenAI

TechCrunch reported that top AI researchers Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel are leaving Google for Anthropic, citing Bloomberg. Adler and Pritzel played key roles in Gemini, and their departures follow Noam Shazeer's move from Google to OpenAI and Google DeepMind director John Jumper's move to Anthropic. The article frames the exits as part of a broader talent fight as OpenAI and Anthropic prepare for public-market scrutiny and can offer equity upside to senior researchers. Google remains one of the world's strongest AI labs, but repeated departures from Gemini and DeepMind teams are a competitive signal worth tracking.

Key details: Published June 24, 2026 at 14:42 PDT, Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel are reportedly leaving Google for Anthropic, Noam Shazeer recently left Google for OpenAI, John Jumper recently left Google for Anthropic.

Why it matters: Frontier-model competition is also a talent market; researcher migration can change lab velocity before it shows up in product launches.