Google folds DeepMind into itself as Hassabis eyes exit

Google DeepMind is losing its independence, with founder Demis Hassabis reportedly considering leaving the AI lab in the coming months. Researcher Koray Kavukcuoglu will take over day-to-day operations without the CEO title, and Gemini development is consolidating in the Bay Area.

Why it matters: Reorganizing and possibly losing its most prominent leader signals real trouble at what was once seen as Google's frontier-model crown jewel, especially amid reported struggles training frontier models despite a booming cloud business. Whether this is a deliberate infrastructure-first bet or a sign Google can't keep pace with OpenAI and Anthropic is now the central question for its AI strategy.