Nobel Laureate John Jumper Leaves DeepMind for Anthropic

Quick Facts

• John Jumper, co-creator of AlphaFold and 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry laureate, announced June 19 he is leaving Google DeepMind for Anthropic after nearly nine years.
• His departure follows Noam Shazeer’s exit from Google to OpenAI in the same week, marking two major AI leadership losses for Google in seven days.
• Anthropic, valued at $965 billion after a $65 billion Series H round, is hosting a science-focused event June 30 and has been building dedicated AI-for-science infrastructure throughout 2026.

John Jumper, who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis for creating AlphaFold, announced on X that he is joining Anthropic after nearly nine years at Google DeepMind. He said he will take time to recharge before starting.

“What we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world, and showed the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine,” Jumper wrote in his announcement post.

Google DeepMind confirmed his departure. “We are grateful for John’s significant contributions to Google DeepMind’s work in advancing science and AI,” a spokesperson told Reuters. A Business Insider report said Jumper will remain at DeepMind through the end of the year to help with the transition.

What AlphaFold Means

AlphaFold predicts the three-dimensional structure of proteins using machine learning. AlphaFold2 has been used by more than two million scientists across 190 countries since its release, accelerating research on malaria vaccines, cancer treatments, and drug-resistant bacteria. The system has predicted over 200 million protein structures, cutting years off biological and medical research timelines.

Jumper joined DeepMind in 2017, six months after completing his PhD in theoretical chemistry at the University of Chicago. He is the youngest chemistry laureate in more than 70 years.

The Anthropic Fit

Anthropic has not disclosed what role Jumper will take. The company did not immediately comment on his hire. But the move aligns with Anthropic’s push into life sciences. The company acquired New York-based startup Coefficient Bio for around $400 million and launched Claude Life Sciences in October 2025. It has also built partnerships with the Allen Institute and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Anthropic is scheduled to host a science-focused event on June 30, 2026. Multiple outlets noted the timing relative to Jumper’s announcement.

Anthropic reached a $965 billion valuation after completing a $65 billion Series H round by May 2026, surpassing OpenAI in private market valuation. The company reported annualized revenue of $47 billion and filed a draft IPO registration statement with U.S. regulators on June 1, 2026.

A Rough Week for Google

Jumper’s exit is the second major departure from Google in one week. Noam Shazeer, a vice president of engineering and co-lead of Google’s Gemini AI models, announced he is leaving for OpenAI. Google had paid $2.7 billion to bring Shazeer back after acquiring his startup Character AI in 2024.

In seven days, Google lost the creator of AlphaFold to Anthropic and a key architect of the Transformer to OpenAI. Former DeepMind researchers have cited the post-merger shift away from fundamental research toward applied AI products as a reason for leaving.

Google has also struggled to sell AI coding tools to businesses, according to former employees. Jumper had been part of Google’s AI coding development team alongside his other work.

For Hassabis and DeepMind, the question now is whether AlphaFold’s success was the product of a system they can repeat or a team they can no longer hold together.

Read more: Nobel laureate John Jumper is leaving DeepMind for rival Anthropic