Why did Demis Hassabis step down as Google DeepMind's CEO?

Hassabis said the move lets him focus on long-term AGI strategy and his work at Isomorphic Labs rather than day-to-day management; Koray Kavukcuoglu now runs daily operations.

Is Demis Hassabis leaving Google?

No. He remains at Alphabet as its chief scientist and as Google DeepMind’s chairman, and continues to be closely involved with Isomorphic Labs.

Who is Koray Kavukcuoglu?

He is DeepMind’s longtime chief technology officer and Alphabet’s chief AI architect, now promoted to senior vice president overseeing Gemini model development, reporting directly to Sundar Pichai.

How did markets react to the leadership shake-up?

Alphabet shares fell roughly 4–5% on the day the changes were announced, amid broader questions about Google’s ability to retain top AI talent.

Demis Hassabis Steps Down as Google DeepMind CEO

Q: Why is Jeff Dean leaving Google?

After 27 years at the company, Dean is co-founding Discovery Loop, a public-benefit corporation aimed at automating machine learning and scientific research, with Alphabet as a founding investor.

Demis Hassabis is stepping down as CEO of Google DeepMind, moving into a newly created role as Alphabet’s chief scientist and DeepMind’s chairman, according to a message from CEO Sundar Pichai and Hassabis posted to Google’s blog on August 5, 2026. Koray Kavukcuoglu, DeepMind’s longtime chief technology officer, takes over day-to-day operations as senior vice president, reporting directly to Pichai.

Why Hassabis is stepping back

Hassabis, who co-founded DeepMind in 2010 and shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for AlphaFold, said the change lets him focus on “the big picture” of artificial general intelligence rather than daily management. He will keep advising Kavukcuoglu and Google DeepMind’s research leads and remains closely tied to Isomorphic Labs, Alphabet’s AI drug-discovery spinout. According to people familiar with his thinking cited by Semafor, the shift had been under discussion for roughly a year and reflects Hassabis’s preference for scientific work over executive duties.

Kavukcuoglu joined DeepMind in its early days and most recently served as the unit’s chief AI architect, overseeing Gemini model development, frontier research and the Gemini app and developer teams.

Jeff Dean also departs

The reshuffle coincides with the departure of Jeff Dean, Google’s chief scientist for the past 27 years, who is leaving to co-found Discovery Loop, an independent public-benefit corporation aimed at automating machine learning and scientific discovery, alongside fellow longtime Googlers Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals and Quoc Le. Alphabet is a founding investor in the new venture.

Timing and reaction

The changes land as Google faces pressure to keep pace with OpenAI and Anthropic: Gemini 3.5 Pro shipped months late, and researchers including Noam Shazeer and John Jumper have left for rivals. Alphabet shares fell roughly 4–5% the day the reshuffle was announced. DeepMind’s robotics group — which recently shipped Gemini Robotics 2 for whole-body humanoid control and the video-understanding update Gemini Robotics ER 2 — continues to report to Kavukcuoglu under the new structure.

Pichai remains CEO of both Google and Alphabet.

Why Hassabis is stepping back

Jeff Dean also departs

Timing and reaction

Frequently asked questions