A longtime leader departs
Jeff Dean, one of Google's most influential engineers, is leaving the company to start a new venture. Several senior AI researchers are going with him.
Dean joined Google in 1999 and helped build the systems that made its search engine fast and reliable. He later co-founded Google Brain, the team that drove much of the company's early deep learning work.
In recent years, Dean oversaw Google DeepMind's research direction. Colleagues describe him as a quiet force behind many of the field's biggest advances.
A wave of exits from big tech
The departure adds to a growing list of top AI researchers leaving large companies. Founders and investors are pouring money into new labs, and experienced researchers are in high demand.
Several former Google researchers have already launched startups that raised hundreds of millions of dollars. The pattern is reshaping the AI industry, as talent spreads from a few large firms to many smaller ones. Recruiting wars have pushed salaries and equity packages to new highs.
Google says it has a deep bench of researchers and will continue its AI work. The company has been investing heavily in its Gemini models and cloud services.
What the new company will do
The new startup has not revealed its plans. Sources familiar with the matter say it will focus on foundation models and the infrastructure needed to train and run them.
That area is crowded but growing fast. Compute costs remain the biggest barrier for new entrants, so the team's experience building large-scale systems could be an advantage. The group's track record could also help it raise money at a time when investors are pickier.
Dean's exit marks the end of an era at Google. It also shows how much of the center of gravity in AI research has shifted from corporate labs to new startups.