Google folds DeepMind into its core as Hassabis moves to chairman and eyes the exit
Google is stripping DeepMind of operational independence, moving all Gemini development to the Bay Area under central control, with Sergey Brin expected to take a larger role and Koray Kavukcuoglu running day-to-day operations without the CEO title. Demis Hassabis has been shifted to chairman and plans to leave within months for Isomorphic Labs, alongside chief scientist Jeff Dean's departure. The money explains the pivot: Gemini's annualized revenue hit $12B in Q2 2026 while Google Cloud is projected to clear $73B in AI infrastructure revenue plus $120B in TPU sales by end of 2027. SemiAnalysis reads it as a frontier lab losing the model race; Tim O'Reilly reads it as Google choosing the Westinghouse role of distributing the technology rather than inventing it.
Source: the-decoder.com ↗
The era of DeepMind as an independent actor is over.
Why this matters
- → DeepMind loses independence; Google centralizes AI under single leadership.
- → Hassabis and Jeff Dean departing signals internal tensions over model race losses.
- → Google pivots toward infrastructure ($120B TPU sales) over frontier model supremacy.