Alphabet shares fall 6.8% as two senior AI researchers depart for rivals within days, compounded by losses in its SpaceX investment stake.

What happened

John Jumper, a Vice President Engineering Fellow at Google DeepMind who shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work on AlphaFold, announced Friday he is leaving for Anthropic after nearly nine years. This came just two days after Noam Shazeer, Google's VP of Engineering and co-lead of the Gemini AI models, disclosed he was departing for OpenAI. Alphabet had spent $2.7 billion（約4300億円） to acquire CharacterAI and bring Shazeer back in 2024.

Why it matters

For Alphabet, which has built much of its growth story around Gemini and DeepMind's research pipeline, losing the architect of AlphaFold and a co-architect of Gemini within days represents a credibility blow that markets are pricing in directly. An analyst noted that frontier AI research labs like OpenAI and Anthropic have an advantage over large companies because they can offer less bureaucracy and more focused effort on AI research, making them attractive to top talent in a market where demand far exceeds supply.

What to watch

Alphabet holds a stake of nearly 5% in SpaceX, which is trading down 9.4% and pacing for a third consecutive day of losses. Separately, Alphabet faces full-year AI capital expenditure projections approaching $190 billion（約30兆円）, along with intensifying regulatory scrutiny across the US, EU, and UK. An equity offering exceeding $80 billion（約13兆円） in early June to fund AI infrastructure has also raised dilution concerns.