Noam Shazeer is leaving Google to join OpenAI.
Winni Wintermeyer for The Washington Post via Getty Images
If you want to see a person's eyes light up at a Silicon Valley party, just say the words "pre-IPO equity." It works.Google's sudden AI talent losses may have less to do with dissatisfaction and more to do with a timeless Silicon Valley calculation: where the biggest equity upside lives.Bloomberg reported Tuesday that two key Gemini researchers, Jonas Adler and Alexander Pritzel, are leaving Google for Anthropic, adding to a growing list of high-profile departures from the search giant. The moves follow recent exits by AI luminaries, including Noam Shazeer and Nobel Prize winner John Jumper.It's tempting to frame these departures as a verdict on Google's AI strategy. That could be part of it — Google has many priorities, while Anthropic and OpenAI are razor-focused on the AI frontier. That's attractive to AI talent.A simpler explanation may be financial, though.For elite Silicon Valley talent, moving from a mature public company to a fast-growing startup has long been one of the most reliable paths to outsized wealth creation — especially if the startup is an IPO candidate.At Google, compensation is mostly tied to RSUs at a company that already commands a market capitalization of over $4 trillion. The upside is substantial but relatively predictable.
