Jeff Dean Leaves Google After 27 Years to Launch Discovery Loop
August 6, 2026
Jeff Dean, Google’s chief scientist, announced on August 5 that he is leaving the company after 27 years to co-found Discovery Loop.
The startup aims to use AI to automate experimental loops in scientific and engineering research. Three other prominent Google researchers are joining Jeff Dean as co-founders.
On the same day, Alphabet announced that Demis Hassabis would step down as Google DeepMind CEO and become Alphabet’s chief scientist as part of a broader reshuffle of its AI leadership.
What Discovery Loop Wants to Automate
Discovery Loop is a public benefit corporation whose stated mission is to automate machine learning, science, and engineering research. Dean announced the launch on X; co-lead investor Radical Ventures identifies him as the startup’s CEO.
Discovery Loop has four co-founders. Alongside Dean are three other researchers leaving Google: Sanjay Ghemawat, a Google senior fellow; Quoc Le, a founding member of Google Brain; and Oriol Vinyals of Google DeepMind.
The company plans to use frontier AI models and large-scale computing infrastructure to run thousands of experiments in parallel, automating the loop of forming hypotheses, testing them, and evaluating results. It will start with machine learning research, then expand into engineering, medicine, materials design, and clean energy.
The company is building a lean, in-person team in Palo Alto. TechCrunch reports the startup is also interested in recursive self-improvement — the idea of using AI to build even more capable AI systems.
An Undisclosed Round Co-Led by Radical Ventures and Khosla Ventures
The initial funding round was co-led by Radical Ventures and Khosla Ventures, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed, Doerr Capital, and Alphabet.
The round’s size and valuation have not been disclosed. In a statement, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Google would work with Discovery Loop as a founding investor and cloud partner and collaborate on a research framework for machine learning systems and related infrastructure.
A Same-Day Reshuffle at Google DeepMind
Jeff Dean joined Google in 1999 as its 30th employee. He helped build the core infrastructure of Google Search and later contributed to Gemini’s multimodal models.
Hassabis is stepping down as Google DeepMind CEO to become chair of Google DeepMind and Alphabet’s chief scientist, while continuing to lead Isomorphic Labs, Alphabet’s AI drug discovery company.
Koray Kavukcuoglu, Google DeepMind’s chief technology officer and Google’s chief AI architect, will lead Google DeepMind day to day as senior vice president. Reports say he will oversee Gemini model development and frontier AI research, continuing to report directly to Pichai. The stakes around Gemini also extend beyond Google: Apple’s rebuilt Siri is powered in part by next-generation Apple Foundation Models developed in collaboration with Google and its Gemini models.
Quartz reported that Alphabet shares fell about 4% on August 5, the day of the announcements.
What to Watch Next
Discovery Loop has not disclosed the size or valuation of its funding round, and it has not yet revealed its first products or research results.
On Google’s side, attention turns to how Gemini development proceeds under Kavukcuoglu, and which areas Hassabis will prioritize as Alphabet’s chief scientist.
Sources
Discovery Loop – Official Website
Jeff Dean – Launch Announcement on X
Radical Ventures – Our Investment in Discovery Loop
TechCrunch – Jeff Dean and other top AI researchers are leaving Google to launch their own startup
WIRED – Jeff Dean Leaves Google to Start Discovery Loop
Reuters – Google shakes up AI leadership as DeepMind chief shifts role
Quartz (Yahoo Finance) – Jeff Dean leaving Google after 27 years to co-found Discovery Loop
The Decoder – Google Deepmind loses both its CEO and chief scientist
