🦾 Artificial Intelligence

US scientist John Jumper to leave Google DeepMind for Anthropic

Source: Reuters  Â·  June 19, 2026

Senior research scientist John Jumper is leaving Google DeepMind to join AI startup Anthropic, marking another high-profile departure at Big Tech's AI research division amid an ongoing talent war.

The Atomic take

Losing Jumper, the AlphaFold architect whose protein-folding work earned a 2024 Nobel, is a far heavier blow than a typical engineer exit, because it strikes at DeepMind's scientific prestige and its claim to lead AI-for-science. Anthropic, long focused on safety and large language models, may be signaling a push into the kind of applied research that made DeepMind's reputation. Watch whether Jumper builds a dedicated science team at Anthropic and whether other AlphaFold-era researchers follow him out the door.

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