Demis Hassabis steps up as Google DeepMind Chair, Jeff Dean departs
Sundar Pichai announces a major Google DeepMind reshuffle: Demis Hassabis becomes Chair and Alphabet Chief Scientist, Koray Kavukcuoglu takes over Gemini, and Jeff Dean departs after 27 years.
BY FOUNDERBUILT AI NEWS
Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has announced a significant leadership reshuffle at Google DeepMind. Co-founder Demis Hassabis is stepping back from day-to-day CEO duties to become Chair of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist of Alphabet, while continuing to lead Isomorphic Labs. In a memo shared with teams, Pichai framed the changes as the next chapter of Google's AI momentum, building a structure built for both AGI ambitions and commercial shipping.
Taking over the top role is Koray Kavukcuoglu, promoted to SVP of Google DeepMind alongside his existing position as Chief AI Architect of Google. A 13-year DeepMind veteran who founded the lab's deep learning team and contributed to breakthroughs like WaveNet and DQN, Koray will oversee Gemini model development, Frontier AI research, and the Gemini app and developer teams. Meanwhile, after a 27-year run, Jeff Dean is departing. He and Google Senior Fellow Sanjay Ghemawat are launching an independent public benefit corporation.
The move marks the end of an era for DeepMind, which Hassabis co-founded in 2010 and which merged with Google Brain in 2023. Hassabis described the moment as standing in the foothills of the singularity and will keep advising the Gemini leads from Google's new London Platform 37 offices. For founders, the shake-up signals how quickly frontier AI leadership is being reorganised as labs race toward general intelligence, with product velocity and research excellence now sharing one reporting line.