Koray Kavukcuoglu eyes potential succession to Sundar Pichai at Google

Google just reshuffled the deck at the top of its AI empire, and one name keeps floating to the surface. Koray Kavukcuoglu, a 13-year DeepMind veteran who helped build some of the foundational technologies powering modern AI, was promoted to Senior Vice President of Google DeepMind on August 5. He also keeps his previous title as Chief AI Architect, a role he picked up barely a year ago in June 2025. The reshuffle and what it means Kavukcuoglu now oversees Google’s Gemini model development and core AI research teams, reporting directly to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. The move came alongside another significant change. Demis Hassabis, co-founder and former CEO of Google DeepMind, shifted into a more strategic position as Chair of Google DeepMind and Chief Scientist for Alphabet. Hassabis will focus on shaping the direction of artificial general intelligence and leading Isomorphic Labs, the company’s AI-for-life-sciences division. The restructuring aligns with what Pichai has described as a new phase of AI platform development for Google. The succession question nobody is officially asking Pichai has led Google since 2015 and Alphabet since 2019. Kavukcuoglu’s 13 years at DeepMind pre...