Jeff Dean and top Google AI researchers leave to launch startup

Aug 5, 2026

Jeff Dean, a long-serving Google executive, is leaving the company with top AI researchers Sanjay Ghemawat, Quoc Le, and Oriol Vinyals to launch a new startup called Discovery Loop. The public benefit corporation aims to use AI to automate and accelerate scientific research by running thousands of experiments simultaneously. The venture has secured funding from Radical Ventures, Khosla Ventures, and Google's parent company, Alphabet.

Jeff Dean departure from Google

▪During his tenure, Jeff Dean contributed to Google's core search infrastructure and played a leading role in the company's early AI research and Gemini models.
▪Jeff Dean has worked at Google since 1999 and was the company's 30th employee.
▪Jeff Dean, an influential and long-serving executive, is leaving Google to launch his own AI startup.

Discovery Loop founding team

▪Jeff Dean will serve as CEO of Discovery Loop.
▪Co-founders of Discovery Loop include top Google researchers Sanjay Ghemawat, Quoc Le, and Oriol Vinyals.
▪The new startup is named Discovery Loop and is structured as a public benefit corporation.

AI-accelerated scientific research

▪Using AI to accelerate scientific discovery has been a key interest for years, but with limited commercial application until recently.
▪The startup plans to use algorithms to initiate and iterate thousands of experiments simultaneously, partially automating the research process.
▪Discovery Loop aims to use AI to accelerate scientific research by automating complete experimental loops.
▪Discovery Loop is also interested in using AI to create more powerful AI, a process known as recursive self-improvement.

Discovery Loop funding round

▪Discovery Loop has received financial support from Google's parent company, Alphabet.
▪Other investors participating in the funding round include Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed, and Doerr Capital.
▪The startup's initial funding round was co-led by Radical Ventures and Khosla Ventures.