Google moves its artificial intelligence leadership to California

Google is reorganising the leadership of its artificial intelligence division. Demis Hassabis is stepping down from the operational leadership of Google DeepMind, according to the Financial Times.

The new operational head is Koray Kavukcuoglu, previously DeepMind's chief technology officer, who takes the position of senior vice president. A move from London to Mountain View took place in 2025.

The change has a geographical consequence. The decision-making centre for Google's artificial intelligence shifts from the London office to Silicon Valley.

From research to product

The British newspaper describes a shift in internal culture. DeepMind began as a research-oriented laboratory; the new set-up gives priority to commercial goals.

The stated aim is to speed up the commercialisation of the Gemini models. In the new structure Sergey Brin's influence is also strengthened.

The background is competition among the large laboratories. Google, with a market capitalisation of 4.4 trillion dollars, is up against OpenAI and Anthropic, while also dealing with departing researchers and the high cost of development.

The two elements are connected. Holding on to researchers costs money, and the spending grows alongside the computing power needed to train the models. A structure closer to the product aims to bring in sooner the revenue that has to cover those costs.

Moving the decision-making centre does not mean closing the London laboratory. DeepMind stays in London, but with a different role within the group.

The reorganisation was not sudden. According to the Financial Times it had been in preparation for several months.

The information comes from around a dozen internal sources, both current and former employees. Google has not publicly confirmed the details reported by the newspaper.

It remains to be seen what role Hassabis will hold in the new structure, and how the weight of the London laboratory will change, having produced the group's most cited scientific results so far.