Noam Shazeer hired by Google for $2.7 billion in 2024 leaves the tech giant in less than 18 months to join Sam Altman's Open AI

Noam Shazeer, vice president of engineering at Google and co-lead of its Gemini artificial intelligence models, announced on Wednesday that he is leaving the company to join OpenAI.

In a post on X, Shazeer said he was looking forward to working with the team at OpenAI. He described the move as a difficult decision and said he was proud of what he and his colleagues had built at Google, calling it an honour and a pleasure to work with the team.

Departure sparks discussion over impact on Google

Shazeer’s exit prompted widespread discussion on X, where many users described the move as a significant loss for Google. The reaction stems in part from Google's decision to spend $2.7 billion in 2024 to bring him back to the company through a licensing agreement tied to Character.AI.



The 48-year-old computer scientist had left Google in 2021 after the company chose not to release a conversational chatbot he had developed. He subsequently co-founded Character.AI.

In 2024, Google entered into a $2.7 billion licensing agreement with Character.AI that resulted in Shazeer and several members of his team returning to the company. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal at the time, securing Shazeer’s return was a major factor behind the deal.

Key figure in AI research

Shazeer was among Google's earliest employees and became one of the company's most prominent artificial intelligence researchers.

In 2017, he co-authored the landmark paper, Attention Is All You Need, alongside seven other Google researchers. The paper introduced the transformer architecture, a breakthrough that forms the foundation of many modern AI systems.

Industry reacts to move

Shazeer’s announcement surprised many observers, given that he had spent less than two years at Google following his return. His X post garnered more than 1.5 million views within hours.

One user described the move as potentially the most significant AI talent shift of the year and questioned what it might indicate about developments at Google.

Tech entrepreneur Yuchen Jin called the development "Brutal news for Gemini," noting that Google had spent $2.7 billion to bring Shazeer back before his departure for OpenAI.

Meanwhile, Sam Altman, co-founder and chief executive officer of OpenAI, welcomed the move on X, saying he had wanted to work with Shazeer since the early days of OpenAI and believed the long wait would be worthwhile.

Other social media users highlighted the short period between Google's efforts to rehire Shazeer and his decision to leave, describing the development as remarkable and difficult to compare with similar moves in other industries.