“Which AI researchers moved between frontier labs since 2025? For each move list the researcher, the lab they left, where they went and the month.”
40 publicly reported, independently corroborated moves between five frontier labs — OpenAI, Meta, Google DeepMind, Anthropic and Thinking Machines — from January 2025 through 16 September 2026. Each move is backed by at least two independent hosts; because labs publish no personnel registers, these are the moves found, not necessarily every move that occurred.
Ribbon width = number of researchers on that origin-to-destination path. Hover a ribbon for the names and months behind it; hover a lab for its departures, arrivals and net. Meta-blue ribbons flow into Meta; grey ribbons flow elsewhere.
| Month | Researcher | Left | Joined | Role | Hosts | Source |
|---|
Method: 40 publicly reported researcher moves between frontier foundation-model labs, January 2025 to 16 September 2026, compiled from web reporting scanned as of 2026-09-16 and cross-checked so each move has at least two independent supporting hosts (no single source URL backs more than 4 of the 40 rows). Month is the effective or start month where reported, otherwise the announcement month. Lab brands are normalized (Meta AI / FAIR / Superintelligence Labs to Meta; Google / Google DeepMind to Google DeepMind). Moves from universities, Apple, chipmakers, application companies, and departures to found startups are excluded. Hosts column = independent corroborating hosts per move.