“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.”
Public-source research through 6 September 2026 surfaced a high-confidence shortlist of 27 direct lab-to-lab moves by 26 researchers, from February 2025 through August 2026, among OpenAI, Anthropic, Google DeepMind, Meta, xAI and Thinking Machines Lab. It is a verified public-source shortlist, not a complete personnel census: private or unannounced moves may be absent. “Month” is the start month where a dated profile states it; otherwise it is the publicly reported departure or announcement month.
Ribbon width = number of moves; hover a ribbon for the researchers and months behind it, a lab bar to focus its flows. Left side: lab left; right side: lab joined.
start month is a profile-dated start; announced / departed is press-reported timing.
| Researcher | Left | Joined | Month | Timing basis | Sources |
|---|
Method: 27 direct lab-to-lab moves by 26 researchers, 2025-02 to 2026-08, compiled from public profiles and press through 2026-09-06. Two evidence reconciliations applied: John Schulman's OpenAI → Thinking Machines row omitted (Anthropic intervened; Anthropic → Thinking Machines 2025-02 retained), and Barrett Zoph's two raw rows to Google collapsed into one OpenAI → Google DeepMind 2026-08 move after his 2026-01 return to OpenAI. Month is a profile-stated start month where available, otherwise the reported departure or announcement month. Sources column shows the count of independent confirming sources; single-source rows are lower confidence. Not a complete census of lab personnel.