AlphaFold pioneer who won a Nobel Prize alongside Demis Hassabis leaves Google DeepMind for Anthropic

John Jumper, a chemist and computer scientist who once won a Nobel Prize alongside Demis Hassabis, announced Friday he is leaving Google DeepMind to join Anthropic.

He’s the latest Silicon Valley name to jump ship for the AI startup darling.

Jumper worked at Google for nearly a decade. “The entire GDM team taught me so much about how to do great science,” he wrote in an X post on Friday. “GDM is a special place, and I’ll still be excited to hear about what amazing things they discover next.” Jumper is best known for spearheading Google’s AlphaFold team, an AI system that predicts a protein’s 3D structure from its amino acid sequence.

The AI-powered technology was a major breakthrough in medical and biological research, enabling scientists to understand protein design in greater detail.

Now offering over 200 million protein structure predictions, it’s a resource that cuts months and even years from the research process.

Hassabis, the cofounder and CEO of DeepMind, said that Jumper’s work with Alphafold will have a lasting legacy. “What we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world, and showed the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine, lighting the way for how AI can benefit humanity,” he wrote.

Hassabis and Jumper shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work developing AlphaFold.

Jumper’s exit to Anthropic coincides with a series of tech leaders at companies like Google and Meta leaving for the big AI startups.

Firms like Anthropic and OpenAI are the hottest tech job around — especially as both prepare for an initial public offering.

Jumper did not say what his role will be at the AI giant.

First, he said, he will be “taking some time to recharge.”