Jun 21, 2026 · Industry Insights

Why the Transformer Pioneer Left Google for OpenAI Despite a $2.7 B Offer

Noam Shazeer, the core author of the Transformer paper, left Google twice—first to co‑found Character.AI after his internal chatbot was blocked, then after Google paid roughly $2.7 billion to bring him back, he departed again for OpenAI, sparking a talent‑war among AI giants.

AI talentCharacter.AIGemini

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Why the Transformer Pioneer Left Google for OpenAI Despite a $2.7 B Offer

Java Tech Enthusiast

Oct 10, 2024 · Artificial Intelligence

Google Rehires AI Pioneer Noam Shazeer for Gemini Development

Google has signed a $2.7 billion agreement to rehire AI pioneer Noam Shazeer—co‑author of the seminal “Attention is All You Need” paper and creator of the Meena chatbot—bringing him back from his Character.AI venture to serve as vice president overseeing the Gemini generative‑AI project alongside DeepMind leaders, thereby bolstering Google’s competitive edge in the field.

AICharacter.AIGemini

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Google Rehires AI Pioneer Noam Shazeer for Gemini Development

Noam Shazeer

Why the Transformer Pioneer Left Google for OpenAI Despite a $2.7 B Offer

Google Rehires AI Pioneer Noam Shazeer for Gemini Development

Why the Transformer Pioneer Left Google for OpenAI Despite a $2.7 B Offer