“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.”
61 distinct, publicly reported researcher moves between frontier AI labs from January 2025 through 5 November 2026, after resolving duplicate month variants of the same move. Each move is backed by at least two independent source hosts; this is a public-reporting census, not an HR roster, so undisclosed moves may be missing. Meta and Meta Superintelligence Labs, and Google and Google DeepMind, are merged in the chart; the table keeps the reported labels.
Link width = number of documented researchers on that lab-to-lab route. Hover a link for the names; hover a lab for its ins and outs. Left: lab left. Right: lab joined.
The single biggest route was OpenAI to Meta Superintelligence Labs: 12 researchers, 11 of them in 2025 during Meta's hiring spree. laptop251.com
In 2026 Anthropic became the top destination with 9 arrivals, including Nobel laureate John Jumper from Google DeepMind. reuters.com
Thinking Machines Lab swung from net recruiter in 2025 to net loser in 2026, with 5 departures in 2026 — mostly back to OpenAI, including Barret Zoph, Luke Metz and Sam Schoenholz in January. bloomberg.com
Four researchers made two documented moves in the window, including Andrew Tulloch (Thinking Machines to Meta in 2025, then Meta to Anthropic in September 2026). businessinsider.com
All 61 moves, chronological
Month
Researcher
Left
Joined
Specialty
Source
Multi-source census of researcher moves between frontier AI labs, 2025-01 to 2026-11-05: 61 distinct moves kept from 82 candidate rows after merging duplicate month variants (the better-sourced month kept) and one surname-only duplicate. Each move is supported by at least two independent hosts and no single URL backs more than half the rows; counts measure documented researchers per lab-to-lab route. Built from 82 candidate rows cross-checked against 483 source-level rows; undisclosed or unreported moves are not covered.