John Jumper, a chemist and computer scientist who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold with Demis Hassabis, announced he is leaving Google DeepMind to join Anthropic. Jumper said he will take time to recharge after nearly a decade at Google,
John Jumper’s last message from Google DeepMind was short, personal, and unmistakably final for this chapter.
On Friday. the chemist and computer scientist—who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Demis Hassabis for developing AlphaFold—announced he is leaving Google DeepMind to join Anthropic. Jumper said he worked at Google for nearly a decade. and in an X post he praised the team he helped build with one line that sounded like both gratitude and goodbye: “The entire GDM team taught me so much about how to do great science.”.
He added that “GDM is a special place,” and that he will remain eager to see “what amazing things they discover next.”
Jumper is closely tied to AlphaFold. the AI system that predicts a protein’s 3D structure from its amino acid sequence. The technology became a major breakthrough for medical and biological research, helping scientists understand protein design in greater detail. AlphaFold is now used at a massive scale—offering over 200 million protein structure predictions—and those outputs are described as a resource that can cut months and even years from the research process.
Hassabis, the cofounder and CEO of DeepMind, responded by framing Jumper’s work as more than a corporate move. In his own remarks. he wrote that “What we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world. ” showing “the field what was possible with AI for science and medicine. ” and that it would “light the way for how AI can benefit humanity.”.
Hassabis and Jumper shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and that connection gives the departure extra weight for people watching both scientific AI and the business side of the industry.
Jumper did not say what role he will take at Anthropic. Before that comes, he said he plans to spend time “taking some time to recharge.”
His exit also lands amid a broader pattern of senior tech leaders moving out of established firms and into the AI startups that are currently pulling the market’s attention. The timing echoes other departures tied to companies like Google and Meta. with Anthropic and OpenAI among the most active destinations. Those startups are also preparing for an initial public offering. making the labor shift feel less like a routine job change and more like a bet on what comes next for the AI industry.
John Jumper Anthropic Google DeepMind AlphaFold Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 Demis Hassabis protein structure predictions AI for science initial public offering