What is Noam Shazeer's new role at OpenAI?

Noam Shazeer is joining OpenAI as Lead for Architecture Research, a role confirmed by OpenAI Chief Research Officer Mark Chen. In that position Shazeer will oversee work on the fundamental design of OpenAI's next generation of advanced AI models, including the model architecture choices that shape capability, cost, and scaling behavior.

Why did Noam Shazeer leave Google?

Noam Shazeer left Google after two years as a co-lead of Gemini, having previously joined Google in 2000 and then founded Character.AI in 2021. Google brought him back in 2024 in a roughly $2.7 billion deal. He has not publicly stated the reason; the move comes amid an intense AI talent war and ahead of OpenAI's expected IPO.

What did Sam Altman say about hiring Noam Shazeer?

Sam Altman posted on X that 'noam is one of the people I have most wanted to work with since the very beginning of openai.' Shazeer himself posted that he was 'excited to share that I'll be joining OpenAI and look forward to working with the exceptional team there.' Google said it was 'grateful for Noam's meaningful contributions to Google over the years.'

What is Noam Shazeer famous for?

Noam Shazeer is best known as a lead author of the 2017 paper 'Attention Is All You Need,' which introduced the Transformer architecture that underpins ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and almost every modern LLM. He also co-founded Character.AI and co-led Google's Gemini program. In 2026 he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

OpenAI · 2026-06-17 · major

Noam Shazeer to OpenAI — Gemini co-lead becomes Lead for Architecture Research

Noam Shazeer, Google VP and Gemini co-lead, is leaving Google to join OpenAI as Lead for Architecture Research, two years after Google paid $2.7B to bring him back from Character.AI.

Reuters via Yahoo Finance

Noam Shazeer, co-author of 'Attention Is All You Need' and Gemini co-lead, is moving from Google to OpenAI to head architecture research.

Quick facts

Who	Noam Shazeer, co-author of 'Attention Is All You Need'
From	Google (VP Engineering, Gemini co-lead)
To	OpenAI
New role	Lead for Architecture Research
Announced	June 17, 2026 (via X)
Context	Google paid $2.7B in 2024 to bring him back from Character.AI

What is it?

Noam Shazeer is one of the most consequential AI engineers alive — a lead author of the 2017 Transformer paper, founder of Character.AI, and since 2024 a vice president of engineering and co-lead of Google's Gemini models. On June 17, 2026 he announced on X that he is leaving Google to join OpenAI.

How does it work?

OpenAI Chief Research Officer Mark Chen confirmed Shazeer's title as 'Lead for Architecture Research,' where Shazeer will oversee the fundamental design of OpenAI's next-generation models. Google brought Shazeer back from Character.AI in 2024 in a roughly $2.7 billion deal that also pulled in his research team. Sam Altman posted that 'noam is one of the people I have most wanted to work with since the very beginning of openai.'

Why does it matter?

Shazeer's architectural choices — Transformer, mixture-of-experts, multi-query attention — have shaped what frontier models look like for the last decade. Moving him from Gemini to OpenAI shifts one of the few people who can redesign a flagship model architecture across the lab line, ahead of OpenAI's expected IPO. For developers, the move signals that architecture, not just scale or RLHF, is the next axis of competition.

Who is it for?

anyone tracking who shapes the next generation of frontier models

Frequently asked questions

What is Noam Shazeer's new role at OpenAI?: Noam Shazeer is joining OpenAI as Lead for Architecture Research, a role confirmed by OpenAI Chief Research Officer Mark Chen. In that position Shazeer will oversee work on the fundamental design of OpenAI's next generation of advanced AI models, including the model architecture choices that shape capability, cost, and scaling behavior.
Why did Noam Shazeer leave Google?: Noam Shazeer left Google after two years as a co-lead of Gemini, having previously joined Google in 2000 and then founded Character.AI in 2021. Google brought him back in 2024 in a roughly $2.7 billion deal. He has not publicly stated the reason; the move comes amid an intense AI talent war and ahead of OpenAI's expected IPO.
What did Sam Altman say about hiring Noam Shazeer?: Sam Altman posted on X that 'noam is one of the people I have most wanted to work with since the very beginning of openai.' Shazeer himself posted that he was 'excited to share that I'll be joining OpenAI and look forward to working with the exceptional team there.' Google said it was 'grateful for Noam's meaningful contributions to Google over the years.'
What is Noam Shazeer famous for?: Noam Shazeer is best known as a lead author of the 2017 paper 'Attention Is All You Need,' which introduced the Transformer architecture that underpins ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and almost every modern LLM. He also co-founded Character.AI and co-led Google's Gemini program. In 2026 he was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.