Noam Shazeer, a co-lead for Google DeepMind’s Gemini project and Vice President of Engineering, has left Google to join OpenAI. This move, described by TBPN podcast hosts as “the most significant AI talent move of the year,” occurred recently and was followed by policy expert Dean Ball also moving to OpenAI. Investors are now evaluating whether this departure justifies selling Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) stock.
Shazeer is recognized for his contributions to AI research, including co-authoring the Transformer, T5, and Switch Transformer papers, and pioneering sparse mixture-of-experts models. His departure has led some observers to question internal dynamics at Google. Dean Ball, known for his critical stance on many companies in the AI sector, also joined OpenAI, with commentators noting his focus on national interests in AI development.
The primary concern arising from Shazeer’s move is its potential impact on Google DeepMind’s competitive standing against OpenAI, particularly regarding talent retention and narrative. The departure of a researcher of Shazeer’s caliber could influence other researchers’ decisions, posing a risk to Google’s future AI development.
Despite the high-profile personnel change, Alphabet’s recent financial performance indicates strong growth. In Q1 FY2026, Alphabet reported earnings per share (TTM) of $13.10 and revenue (TTM) of $422.5 billion. The company achieved a 21.8% year-over-year increase in quarterly revenue and an 82% year-over-year growth in earnings.
Google Cloud demonstrated significant expansion, with revenue rising 63% year-over-year to $20.03 billion. Its backlog nearly doubled, exceeding $460 billion. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai stated that Gemini API usage was processing over 16 billion tokens per minute, a 60% sequential increase. Gemini Enterprise also saw a 40% quarter-over-quarter growth in paid monthly active users, according to company statements.
Microsoft’s AI business, in contrast, reached a $37 billion annual run rate, marking a 123% year-over-year increase. However, Microsoft’s stock has traded down 21% year-to-date, attributed to investor concerns over capital burn. This contrasts with Alphabet, which has no analyst sell ratings despite the executive departure.
The immediate financial data does not suggest a need to sell Alphabet stock based solely on this executive move. The company’s robust earnings and cloud growth figures present a strong counter-argument to concerns about its competitive position in the AI sector. However, the long-term implications of retaining top AI talent remain an ongoing consideration for both Google and the broader AI industry.
The market will continue to watch how Google DeepMind manages its talent pool and how its AI product development progresses in light of these departures. Future competitive dynamics between Google and OpenAI, particularly in attracting and retaining leading researchers, will be a key factor for investors to monitor.