John Jumper Leaves DeepMind for Anthropic: The Nobel Winner of AlphaFold Changes Teams
In recent days, John Jumper, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry 2024 and VP, Engineering Fellow at Google DeepMind, announced on his X profile that he will be leaving the company after nearly nine years to join Anthropic. The specific role he will take on at the rival company has not been disclosed, neither by Anthropic nor by Jumper himself.
A bit of news: After nearly 9 years, I have decided to leave Google DeepMind and join Anthropic (after taking some time to recharge). I am incredibly grateful for my time at GDM.
— John Jumper (@JohnJumperSci)
June 19, 2026
"A little news: after nearly nine years, I've decided to leave Google DeepMind and join Anthropic, after taking some time to recharge," Jumper wrote in his farewell message. In the same post, he thanked DeepMind and recalled how Demis Hassabis had entrusted him with leading the AlphaFold team just six months after his PhD.
The Face of AlphaFold
Jumper and Hassabis shared half of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the development of AlphaFold2, the system that predicts the three-dimensional structure of proteins from amino acid sequences; the other half went to David Baker from the University of Washington for computational protein design. The model has so far produced predictions for over 200 million protein structures, redefining the way much of structural biology operates.
In response to Jumper's post, Hassabis wrote that "what we achieved with AlphaFold has changed the world and shown the industry what is possible with AI applied to science and medicine, pointing the way for how AI can benefit humanity."
A Week of Goodbyes for Google
In the same week, Noam Shazeer, VP Engineering and co-lead of the Gemini models, also announced that he was leaving Google DeepMind for OpenAI: two major losses for Google's AI division within a span of 48 hours. This double departure is part of the talent race opposing large tech groups like Meta and Alphabet against younger companies like Anthropic and OpenAI, all striving to secure leading researchers.
Jumper was also a key figure in Google's team dedicated to AI-based coding tools, an area where the company has struggled to sell its products to enterprises. The destination aligns well with Anthropic's scientific trajectory: the company has a public event focused on AI for science scheduled for June 30, 2026, just days after the announcement.
For its part, Google DeepMind issued a statement through a spokesperson expressing that they are "grateful to John for his significant contributions to Google DeepMind's work in advancing science and AI" and wish him "all the best for the next chapter."