Seven months ago, Fortune profiled Demis Hassabis as a scientist philosopher, picturing Google DeepMind's chief executive and Nobel laureate contemplating the universe at University College London's observatory while steering both Google's Gemini effort and Isomorphic, the AI drug design company he also founded. Revisiting that profile now, Fortune describes a very different picture at DeepMind, one it calls the end of an era.
On August 5, 2026, Hassabis stepped down as CEO to become chairman, handing the role to chief technology officer Koray Kavukcuoglu. Chief scientist Jeff Dean and several senior researchers have since left the company as well, part of what Fortune describes as one of the most damaging stretches of departures in DeepMind's history.
Three current employees and one former staffer told Fortune the exits trace back to delayed models, missed deadlines, staff burnout, and internal conflict over defense related contracts, all of which had been eroding confidence inside the organization well before the leadership change was announced. One former employee offered a blunt assessment of Hassabis's presence day to day, saying he was rarely seen in the London office's Gemini area and describing him as not a very inspiring leader, certainly not in the way people talk about Anthropic's Dario Amodei.
Fortune frames the restructuring as more than a simple executive reshuffle. Handing day to day control to Kavukcuoglu, who is based at Google's Mountain View headquarters, signals a shift in power away from London, the city where DeepMind was founded and built its identity as a research heavy, semi independent outfit within Google. Whether that shift helps DeepMind regain the edge it once had in the AI race, or accelerates the sense of an organization in transition, is the question hanging over the company as it moves into its next phase without Hassabis in day to day command.