By Reuters | Updated: August 27, 2026
Aug 26 (Reuters) – Barret Zoph, a co-founder of artificial intelligence startup Thinking Machines Lab, will join Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O) unit Google DeepMind, Zoph said on Wednesday.
Here are some details:
- Zoph will join Google’s DeepMind as Vice President of Research after serving as Vice President of Research at OpenAI.
- Zoph made a brief return to his former employer, OpenAI, after leaving Thinking Machines earlier this year, according to his LinkedIn profile.
- The move is the latest in a series of AI-driven reshuffles at the company, including DeepMind CEO Dennis Hassabis stepping aside this month.
- Zoph spent six years with Google as a research scientist in Google Brain, which was later merged with DeepMind to form Google DeepMind in 2023.
- Alphabet’s shakeup of the AI lab included a revelation during an all-hands meeting on August 6 that some teams were moving out of DeepMind and into corporate Google, Reuters reported earlier this month, citing two sources.
Reporting by Natalia Bueno Rebolledo in Mexico City and Sathvi G Bhat in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich
© Thomson Reuters 2026
