Google DeepMind is losing its grip on elite AI talent, new data shows

Google DeepMind, once the leading destination for elite AI researchers, especially in Europe, is now struggling to retain its top talent, according to a new analysis by UK-based data intelligence company Zeki Data. The company, which was once a major player in the AI talent market, is now losing out to rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as Meta, in the competition for top AI engineers.

The shift in the AI talent market has seen cash-rich labs offering salaries more common in professional sports, plus equity packages that could turn early employees into billionaires. This has resulted in elite researchers swapping between rival labs at a rapid pace. DeepMind's changing identity, with a focus on improving and commercializing Gemini, has weakened part of its historic appeal of open-ended, long-horizon science.

The lab's recent string of departures, including high-profile names like Jeff Dean, Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals, and Quoc Le, who left to launch a startup, is reflective of the broader trend. The share of DeepMind's research and advanced-engineering hires across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa fell from 49% in 2022-23 to 18.6% in 2025-26, the sharpest market-share drop recorded for a major AI lab in any region.