Google Loses Two More AI Researchers to Anthropic in Week-Long Talent Exodus
Summary: Two more senior Google AI researchers — Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel — are heading to Anthropic, extending a dramatic week of talent departures from the Gemini team.
Key facts
- Adler led Google's AI coding work; Pritzel was responsible for Gemini pretraining — both also contributed to AlphaFold alongside Nobel laureate John Jumper
- Their moves follow Noam Shazeer (to OpenAI, June 18) and Jumper (to Anthropic, June 20): at least four landmark exits in seven days
- Alphabet shares fell as much as 7.2% on June 22 on the earlier defections; further pressure expected following this report
- Pre-IPO equity at Anthropic and OpenAI is widely reported to be the primary recruiting lever
Why it matters
Losing the leads on both coding and pretraining — two pillars of Gemini's competitive quality — in the same week is a structural blow to Google's AI development pipeline, not merely a personnel story. As Anthropic and OpenAI approach public markets with attractive option pools, the incentive to recruit at Google's expense is unlikely to ease. Regulators and investors will be watching whether this exodus affects Gemini's roadmap.