Google’s Alphabet is concentrating its artificial intelligence leadership at its Mountain View, California, headquarters to gain momentum in the race against Anthropic and OpenAI to build the world’s dominant AI models. The company appointed Koray Kavukcuoglu, who moved to Mountain View in 2026, to run its AI research and operations. Demis Hassabis, DeepMind’s co-founder and long-time CEO, has stepped back from day-to-day operations to become chairman of Google DeepMind and Alphabet’s Chief Scientist. Sebastian Borgeaud, head of a key AI coding effort, also moved from Britain to California. The centralisation aims to reverse a trend since at least 2023, when Google merged Google Brain and DeepMind, but researchers continued operating on separate continents, complicating decision-making. Google is months behind schedule in launching the most powerful version of its flagship AI model, and its products are seen as an afterthought in coding automation. Researcher departures include legendary engineer Jeff Dean to launch start-ups, and defections to rivals Anthropic and OpenAI. Google has pledged to spend as much as US$205 billion (S$262.5 billion) in 2026 alone on capital expenditures. David Silver, a distinguished researcher, left earlier in 2026 to form Ineffable Intelligence, raising US$1.1 billion in seed capital. DeepMind’s chief experience officer Simon Bouton, a 13-year veteran, is also planning to leave for Cusp