Demis Hassabis is stepping down as CEO of Google DeepMind to become chair of the unit and chief scientist of parent company Alphabet, CEO Sundar Pichai announced on Wednesday in a memo posted to Google's blog2,6. The leadership reshuffle also includes the departure of Jeff Dean, Google's longtime chief scientist, who is leaving the company after 27 years.
Hassabis, who co-founded DeepMind and has led Google's core AI research division, will shift away from day-to-day operational responsibilities. "I've decided that now is the right time for me to hand over my day-to-day operational responsibilities at GDM, so that I have the time and space to focus on the big picture and help influence what is to come to the best of my ability," Hassabis said in a memo to colleagues published by Google. He will continue to lead Alphabet's Isomorphic Labs, which aims to use AI to develop drugs4.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, formerly DeepMind's CTO, is stepping up to become Google's senior vice president of DeepMind and will report directly to Pichai. Kavukcuoglu will also remain Google's chief AI architect.
Dean, credited with some of Google's most important technical breakthroughs, is leaving to start a new company called Discovery Loop alongside Google senior fellow Sanjay Ghemawat. The departure is on friendly terms, and Google will invest in the startup, a representative said.
Alphabet shares fell about 4% after the announcement.
ANALYSIS The restructuring concentrates Google's AI strategy under two distinct tracks: Kavukcuoglu takes operational control of DeepMind's research and engineering, while Hassabis moves into a strategic advisory posture spanning both DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs. The simultaneous loss of Dean — a figure synonymous with Google's technical infrastructure for nearly three decades — compounds the organizational disruption.
Business Insider Africa reported that Hassabis had been tipped by some to be the next CEO of Google. The move to a chairman and chief scientist role instead repositions him away from the operational leadership track.
Business Insider Africa also reported that Google has struggled to keep up with frontier AI labs in AI coding, and that its next big AI model has been delayed this year.
ANALYSIS The reshuffle pairs a leadership transition at DeepMind with the exit of Google's chief scientist, marking a sweeping organizational change at the core of Google's AI operation.