Nobel Laureate John Jumper jumps to Anthropic from Google’s DeepMind

Jumper shared the 2024 chemistry Nobel with Hassabis for AlphaFold, an AI system that predicts protein structures.John Jumper, Vice-President at Google DeepMind and a 2024 Nobel laureate in chemistry for his work on artificial intelligence, is leaving the company to join rival AI firm Anthropic, according to Bloomberg, marking a high-profile departure amid intensifying competition in the sector.Jumper, a central figure in DeepMind’s scientific and coding efforts, announced the move publicly, saying: “After nearly 9 years, I have decided to leave Google DeepMind and join Anthropic.” He added that CEO Demis Hassabis “took a real chance letting me lead the AlphaFold team just six months after finishing my PhD.”A spokesperson for Google DeepMind confirmed the departure, expressing gratitude for Jumper’s contributions to advancing AI and scientific research.

Anthropic also confirmed that Jumper will be joining the company, Bloomberg reported.Pioneer of AlphaFoldJumper shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in chemistry with Hassabis for developing AlphaFold, an AI system capable of predicting protein structures, widely seen as a breakthrough in biology and medicine.Reacting to the exit, Hassabis said: “Thanks John for an extraordinary partnership and wonderful collaboration over the past 9 years.

What we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world, and showed the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine.”The development comes as competition among leading AI developers including OpenAI and Anthropic intensifies, particularly in the fast-growing market for AI-powered coding tools, where rivals have gained traction with businesses.Jumper’s departure also follows the earlier exit of prominent AI researcher Noam Shazeer to OpenAI, underscoring growing talent and competitive pressures within Google’s AI division as companies race to build more advanced and commercially viable AI systems.