Google reshuffles AI leadership as investor worries mount

Alphabet overhauled its AI leadership with Demis Hassabis moving out of his main managerial role at Google DeepMind and into a broader post as chair of Google DeepMind and Alphabet’s chief scientist. Koray Kavukcuoglu, the unit’s chief technology officer, was named to handle the business unit’s day-to-day responsibilities as senior vice president, a sign that Google wants tighter operational control over the part of the company it now sees as most critical.

The reshuffle also lifted Hassabis further into the role of long-term strategist. He has been one of Google’s most visible AI figures, tied to AlphaGo, AlphaFold and the research that helped earn him and the AlphaFold team the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for protein-structure prediction work. Hassabis is also founder and chief executive of Isomorphic Labs, giving him a rare position that straddles Google’s core AI push and its broader scientific ambitions.

The overhaul came as Google faced renewed investor pressure over whether it could keep up with OpenAI in the AI race. In early 2025, investors were already questioning whether the search giant could match the momentum of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, and the capital demands of the sector have only intensified. A Reuters-linked estimate put the combined AI spending of Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta and Oracle at around $1 trillion by 2026, underscoring how much money is now flowing into model training, chips and infrastructure.

The move also extended a centralization trend that Alphabet began in April 2023, when it merged DeepMind and Google Brain to strengthen its AI development efforts. That earlier consolidation was meant to streamline research; the latest shift separates strategic oversight from execution more explicitly, with Hassabis focused on science and Kavukcuoglu on operations. Jeff Dean, Google’s longtime chief scientist, was also said to be leaving after 27 years to start a new AI company, adding another change at the top of the company’s technical ranks.

For Alphabet, the leadership change reflects where the company believes the biggest upside and the biggest risk now sit. Google’s AI plans are no longer just a research story. They are tied directly to how fast the company can turn technical progress into products, revenue and reassurance for investors watching the AI arms race close in.