Alphabet shares fell more than 7% on June 22, wiping out about $320 billion in market value and hitting their lowest level since late April. The decline followed the departure of two top artificial intelligence researchers from Google DeepMind, including Nobel laureate John Jumper, who joined Anthropic.
Alphabet shares fell more than 7% on June 22, wiping out about $320 billion in market value and hitting their lowest level since late April. The decline followed the departure of two top artificial intelligence researchers from Google DeepMind, including Nobel laureate John Jumper, who joined Anthropic.
Alphabet shares fell more than 7% on June 22, erasing about $320 billion in market value after two top AI researchers left Google DeepMind.
"The demand for limited AI research talent is so intense that frontier labs are willing to do whatever it takes to recruit them," said Gil Luria, an analyst at D.A. Davidson. "This puts startups like Anthropic and OpenAI at an advantage over large companies like Google because they can offer less bureaucracy and a more focused effort."
The stock closed at its lowest since late April, retreating from an all-time high near $400 reached in May. The $4.4 trillion company's cloud division had been a bright spot, with Google Cloud revenue surging 63% to a record $20 billion in the first quarter, far outpacing growth at Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. Google Cloud now holds 14% of the global cloud market, its highest share ever.
The departures raise questions about Alphabet's ability to retain elite AI talent as competition intensifies. John Jumper, co-creator of the AlphaFold protein-folding system and a 2024 Nobel laureate, left after nearly nine years at DeepMind to join Anthropic. Noam Shazeer, a vice president of engineering and co-lead of Google's Gemini AI models, also departed days earlier for OpenAI.
Jumper's move marks one of the most significant talent losses for Google's AI organization. His AlphaFold system predicted more than 200 million protein structures, cutting years off biological research. Demis Hassabis, Google DeepMind's chief executive officer and fellow Nobel winner, praised Jumper's contributions, saying in a social media post that "what we achieved with AlphaFold changed the world."
The back-to-back exits come as Anthropic prepares for a potential initial public offering later this year. Google holds roughly 14% of Anthropic in straight equity, valued at approximately $135 billion based on the startup's $965 billion valuation, according to court documents cited by Fortune. Anthropic committed to spending $200 billion with Google Cloud over five years as part of a 2026 agreement, deepening a complex relationship where Google both invests in and competes with the AI startup.
Alphabet's plan to spend $175 billion to $185 billion on capital expenditures in 2026, nearly double the $91 billion spent in 2025, shows the scale of investment required to maintain its AI infrastructure advantage. The company has avoided the large layoff rounds that hit rivals this year, with its shares reaching an all-time high just last month.
For investors, the key question is whether the talent exodus indicates a deeper problem at Google's AI research division or represents normal churn in a hyper-competitive labor market. Anthropic is hosting a science event on June 30 where Jumper's role may be disclosed, offering the first glimpse of how the startup plans to use its new hire. The movement of elite researchers between frontier AI labs is increasingly shaping which organizations emerge as leaders in the next phase of AI development.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.
