50 reported lab-to-lab moves by 48 researchers across seven frontier AI labs, January 2025 through August 2026. Meta AI absorbed more than half of all inbound flow — 26 of 50 moves — with 14 arriving straight from OpenAI and 10 from Google DeepMind.
Ribbon width = number of moves. Ribbon colour = destination lab. Hover a lab or a ribbon for the researchers behind it. Each drifting dot is one move.
| Month | Researcher | Left → joined | Role / context | Timing basis | Source |
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Data: 51 sourced rows of reported researcher moves between frontier AI labs, January 2025 – 27 August 2026, compiled from public press reporting. One row was excluded as a duplicate: Shengjia Zhao's July 2025 entry reflects his chief-scientist title announcement, not a second move; his OpenAI-to-Meta move is counted once, in June 2025. That leaves 50 moves by 48 researchers. Meta and Meta Superintelligence Labs are treated as Meta AI; Google and Google DeepMind as Google DeepMind; Microsoft frontier-model work as Microsoft AI. A month is the public announcement or reporting month unless the source explicitly identifies a joining or departure month. Roles are supporting context as reported; where sourcing is secondary, the source link makes provenance transparent.