Alphabet shares fall amid Google DeepMind leadership shake-up

Alphabet shares fell as much as 6% following a major leadership restructuring at Google DeepMind. Nobel laureate Demis Hassabis is stepping down as CEO of DeepMind to become Alphabet’s chief scientist and Chair of the DeepMind board. In his new role, Hassabis will focus on research and strategy regarding the societal impacts of artificial general intelligence (AGI) and continue to lead Isomorphic Labs, a drug discovery company he founded.

Koray Kavukcuoglu, a 13-year DeepMind veteran, will assume leadership of Google DeepMind as Senior Vice President. Kavukcuoglu will oversee the development of Gemini models, Frontier AI research, and the Gemini app and developer teams.

Additionally, veteran researcher Jeff Dean is departing Google to launch Discovery Loop, an independent public benefit corporation focused on machine learning, science, and engineering, with support from Google. The leadership changes have caused significant market volatility, with Alphabet's market value seeing a substantial temporary decline.