Noam Shazeer, a vice president ​of engineering at Google and co-lead of ‌its Gemini artificial intelligence models, said ​on Wednesday that he ⁠will leave the company to join IPO-bound ChatGPT maker OpenAI.

Shazeer’s move comes as ‌leading AI firms compete for talent while racing to develop ‌advanced models.

The surprise departure ‌comes ⁠less than two years after Google ⁠reportedly paid $2.7 billion to bring Shazeer, the former head of startup Character.AI, back to ​the company along ‌with a team of his researchers.

The timing of Shazeer’s departure from Google was not immediately clear.

In 2024, ‌Google appointed Shazeer to co-lead ​the development of its Gemini AI model, and he has ⁠been credited as key figure behind Gemini’s ability to close the gap ‌on OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

“I’m incredibly proud of the amazing team at Google and everything we’ve built together,” Shazeer said on X, adding that he was “excited” to join OpenAI.

“We are grateful for ‌Noam’s meaningful contributions to Google over the ​years,” Google said in a statement to Reuters.

Shazeer joined ⁠Google in 2000 and was a ⁠co-author of a seminal 2017 research paper that catalysed the AI ‌boom.