Google DeepMind Loses 2 Top Leaders as Gemini Misses 3 Release Dates

3 articles · Updated · Fortune · Aug 13

Demis Hassabis moved from CEO to chair and Jeff Dean exited within minutes of each other, capping a turbulent stretch at Google DeepMind after CTO Koray Kavukcuoglu took day-to-day control.
Three missed release dates for Gemini 3.5 Pro and weak benchmark standing for shipped model Gemini 3.6 Flash have sharpened concerns that Google is slipping behind Anthropic, OpenAI, xAI, Meta and a Chinese rival.
June departures added to the strain: Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer left for OpenAI, AlphaFold co-inventor John Jumper joined Anthropic, and two other AlphaFold veterans also departed.
Engineers say the reshuffle shifts power from London to Mountain View and weakens DeepMind's historic autonomy, though Google says London remains central and the lab keeps research independence.
Google still retains major advantages in chips, cloud and distribution, but DeepMind now faces renewed pressure to prove it can keep pace in AI without the two leaders most tied to its scientific identity.