86 documented frontier-lab moves since 2025: OpenAI→Meta surged in mid-2025, Google DeepMind→Anthropic in mid-2026
Asked:
“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.”
This scan documents 86 publicly reported researcher moves between 15 frontier AI labs, January 2025 through September 2026 — each with a named researcher, origin, destination and month. It is an inventory of documented moves, not a census of all moves worldwide: private moves may never be announced, and 35 of the 86 rows rest on a single host.
Every documented move, month by month
Each square is one researcher move; colour is the lab joined. Hollow squares are single-sourced. Hover or tap a square for the researcher and route.
OpenAI→Meta is the largest corridor: 17 moves, almost all in June–July 2025 during Meta’s superintelligence hiring wave. select.keenable.ai
A second wave runs the other way in 2026: Google DeepMind→Anthropic accounts for 5 moves, concentrated in June 2026. nicholas.carlini.com
Thinking Machines Lab is both a magnet and a source: it hired 13 researchers (including 6 from OpenAI in February 2025) and later lost 8, five of them back to OpenAI. en.wikipedia.org
Five researchers moved more than once in the period — Andrew Tulloch, Barrett Zoph, Luke Metz, Lilian Weng and Ruoming Pang. officechai.com
Month ↕
Researcher ↕
Lab left ↕
Lab joined ↕
Sources ↕
Hosts ↕
Source
Documented researcher moves between frontier AI labs, 86 rows, January 2025 – September 2026, compiled from public announcements and press coverage; one row per researcher–origin–destination move. Month is the reported joining or announcement month when the start date was unavailable. Sources and hosts count corroborating articles and distinct websites; 35 rows rest on a single host and are marked single-sourced. Meta AI and Meta Superintelligence Labs are shown as Meta; Google frontier-model roles as Google DeepMind. Policy, communications and non-research roles were excluded.