The Great AI Brain Drain: Why DeepMind, Meta, and OpenAI Stars Are Fleeing to Startups—and What It Means for the Future of Artificial Intelligence
In 2026, $18.8 billion has poured into AI startups founded by researchers who left DeepMind, Meta, OpenAI, and Google. From David Silver's $1.1 billion seed round to Yann LeCun's AMI Labs, a fundamental realignment is underway that will reshape how AI is built, funded, and commercialized.