# Google's Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer joins OpenAI after two-year return stint

> Source: <https://the-decoder.com/googles-gemini-co-lead-noam-shazeer-joins-openai-after-two-year-return-stint/>
> Published: 2026-06-18 07:08:29+00:00

Noam Shazeer, co-author of the landmark "Attention Is All You Need" paper and former co-lead of Google's Gemini models, is joining OpenAI. He only returned to Google from Character.AI in 2024 as part of a $2.7 billion deal. After Karpathy's move to Anthropic, it's the second major AI hiring shake-up this year.

The article [Google's Gemini co-lead Noam Shazeer joins OpenAI after two-year return stint](https://the-decoder.com/googles-gemini-co-lead-noam-shazeer-joins-openai-after-two-year-return-stint/) appeared first on [The Decoder](https://the-decoder.com).