AI competition stories

Jun 18, 2026

Noam Shazeer, Co-Lead of Google Gemini, Joins OpenAI

Noam Shazeer, a vice president of engineering at Google and co-lead of its Gemini AI models, announced he is leaving to join OpenAI. Shazeer previously spent 20 years at Google before co-founding Character.AI in 2021, which Google acquired in 2024 for $2.7 billion.

Jun 18, 20262 sources

Jun 9, 2026

Perplexity CEO Confirms 2028 IPO Plans Regardless of OpenAI and Anthropic Market Performance

Perplexity's CEO stated the company is still targeting a 2028 IPO, maintaining its timeline independent of how competing AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic perform in their public market debuts.

Jun 9, 20262 sources