Jeff Dean, one of Google's most influential artificial intelligence pioneers, has announced that he is leaving the tech giant to launch Discovery Loop, a new AI company focused on accelerating scientific research through machine learning.

Dean shared the announcement on social media platform X, revealing that he is co-founding the startup alongside Sanjay Ghemawat, Oriol Vinyals, and Quoc Le. The company will operate as a Public Benefit Corporation, aiming to develop autonomous AI systems that can speed up scientific discoveries and engineering breakthroughs.

Discovery Loop aims to transform scientific research

According to Jeff Dean, Discovery Loop will focus on using advanced machine learning technologies to automate research processes and help scientists make faster discoveries across multiple fields.

He said the startup's mission is to combine artificial intelligence with science and engineering to solve complex problems more efficiently.

Dean also reflected on his nearly three decades at Google, saying he witnessed the company grow from around 30 employees in 1999 to a global technology leader with nearly 190,000 employees.

He thanked colleagues for the opportunity to help build some of the world's most widely used technology products, describing his time at Google as an extraordinary journey.

Sundar Pichai confirms Google's investment

Google CEO Sundar Pichai welcomed the announcement and revealed that Google will become a founding investor in Discovery Loop.

Pichai praised Jeff Dean and co-founder Sanjay Ghemawat for their contributions to Google and wished them success in their new venture.

Jeff Dean played a central role in developing Google's search infrastructure, including web crawling, indexing and search systems. In recent years, he also helped lead the development of the company's advanced AI technologies, including the Gemini family of models.

Leadership changes come amid intense AI competition

Dean's departure comes as Google reshapes its AI leadership during an increasingly competitive race in artificial intelligence.

As part of the leadership changes, Demis Hassabis, head of Google DeepMind, will assume the role of chairman, while Chief Technology Officer Koray Kavukcuoglu has been appointed Senior Vice President to oversee Gemini models and other AI initiatives.

Google is also facing growing competition from OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, Meta, and Chinese AI firms such as DeepSeek and Moonshot, while several prominent AI researchers have recently left the company for rival organisations.