Will AI talent departures hurt Alphabet's long-term growth?

Nobel Prize-winning AI scientist John Jumper left Google DeepMind after nearly nine years to join Anthropic, following the recent exit of Gemini architect Noam Shazeer to OpenAI. Alphabet shares recorded their steepest one-day decline in over a year, wiping out more than $225 billion in market value as investors raised concerns over the company's ability to retain top AI talent. Despite heavy ongoing investments in AI infrastructure and Gemini models, analysts warn the back-to-back departures could erode Google's competitive edge in artificial intelligence.