Nobel Prize winner John Jumper is departing from Google DeepMind to join Anthropic after almost nine years.

      **TL;DR** John Jumper, vice president at Google DeepMind and co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold, is leaving the company after nearly nine years to join Anthropic. Jumper announced his transition on X on Thursday, stating he would take some time to recharge before starting at his new position. Both companies confirmed his departure.

      “Demis Hassabis took a significant risk by allowing me to lead the AlphaFold team only six months after I finished my PhD,” wrote Jumper. Hassabis, who also won the Nobel Prize, publicly remarked: “Our achievements with AlphaFold changed the world and demonstrated what AI can accomplish for science and medicine, guiding how AI can benefit humanity.”

      This departure comes shortly after Noam Shazeer, co-lead of Gemini, announced he was leaving Google for OpenAI, marking the second major talent loss for Google’s AI team within 48 hours. Shazeer co-authored the influential 2017 paper "Attention Is All You Need," foundational to many contemporary large language models. Google had reportedly spent $2.7 billion to bring him back from Character.AI less than two years ago.

      Jumper shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Hassabis for the development of AlphaFold2, an AI system capable of predicting protein structures from amino acid sequences. The other half of the prize was awarded to David Baker from the University of Washington for his work in computational protein design. Since its launch, AlphaFold2 has been utilized by over two million scientists in 190 countries, significantly advancing research on malaria vaccines, cancer therapies, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

      Prior to joining DeepMind, Jumper received a Marshall Scholarship to study at Cambridge and earned a PhD in theoretical chemistry at the University of Chicago. Born in 1985, he became the youngest Nobel laureate in chemistry in over 70 years upon receiving the award.

      Neither Anthropic nor Jumper has revealed the specific role he will fill at the company. However, this hire aligns with Anthropic’s growth into life sciences and computational biology. In April, the company acquired Coefficient Bio, a stealth biotech startup, for $400 million in stock, bringing expertise in protein design into its healthcare division, which is headed by Eric Kauderer-Abrams. He has expressed a desire to ensure that a significant share of global life science work operates on Claude. Adding a Nobel laureate known for transforming the understanding of protein structure would bolster that ambition immensely.

      This timing is also significant for Google. Reports have indicated that DeepMind employees and executives have raised concerns about the lack of a clear solution for businesses seeking AI coding tools, an area where Anthropic and OpenAI have found considerable success. Anthropic's Claude Code has driven much of its recent revenue growth, and analyses suggest that DeepMind has seen engineers depart for Anthropic at nearly an 11 to 1 ratio.

      Despite remaining a powerful research entity, with initiatives like Isomorphic Labs working on AI-designed drug candidates currently in clinical trials and its Gemini models powering widely used products across the Pentagon, the back-to-back departures of Jumper and Shazeer raise questions. Shazeer departed despite a reported multi-billion-dollar deal, and Jumper leaves as a Nobel Prize winner affiliated with DeepMind.

      This suggests that if neither prestige nor financial incentives can retain the individuals responsible for the company’s most distinguished accomplishments, the underlying issue may not be compensation.

      For Anthropic, this hire signals the company’s future direction. Jumper’s knowledge lies at the intersection of AI and fundamental science, an area where Anthropic is heavily investing, though it has yet to demonstrate leadership. Whether the creator of AlphaFold can achieve similar breakthroughs outside the lab that facilitated his past success remains uncertain, and neither his Nobel Prize nor his new employer’s valuation can assure this outcome.