Llion Jones had a big role at Google, where he worked for almost 12 years. He was one of eight authors of the pivotal Transformers research paper, which is central to the latest in generative artificial intelligence.
However, like all of his co-authors, Jones has now left Google. He’s joining fellow ex-Google researcher David Ha to build a generative AI research lab in Tokyo called Sakana AI. Jones said that while he has no ill will toward Google, he realized that the company’s size was keeping him from doing the kind of work he wanted to pursue.
“It’s just a side effect of big company-itis,” Jones told CNBC in an interview. “I think the bureaucracy had built to the point where I just felt like I couldn’t get anything done.”
Jones, who studied AI in college and has a masters in advanced computer science from the University of Birmingham, is at the center of the action. The 2017 paper he helped write at Google laid out innovations that played into OpenAI’s creation of the viral chatbot ChatGPT. The T stands for Transformers, an architecture behind much of today’s frenetic generative AI activity.
“We’re kind of crazy,” Jones said. “We’re looking at nature-inspired methods to see if we can find a different way of doing things, rather than doing a huge, humongous model.” Sakana isn’t announcing any investors.
Jones became a software engineer at Google’s YouTube in 2012. According to his LinkedIn profile, he started “researching machine intelligence and natural language understanding” at Google in 2015.
Google is one of a number of large tech companies that hired hordes of researchers in recent years, some straight from universities, to construct AI models aimed at enriching their products. Over time, Jones said he encountered questions about why the software was malfunctioning and whose fault it was. He found it all to be a distraction from the research.
“Every day I would be spending my time trying to get access to resources, trying to get access to data,” Jones said.
Now, after many years building products in labs, Google is rushing to incorporate generative AI, including large language models (LLMs), into its search engine, YouTube and other products. The models can summarize information and come up with human-like responses to written questions.
In Jones’ view, Google is focusing “the entire company around this one technology,” and innovation is more challenging “because that’s quite a restrictive framework,” he said.
Ha said he and Jones have spoken with others who want to work on LLMs, but they haven’t finalized their plans.
“I would be surprised if language models were not part of the future,” said Ha, who left Google last year to be head of research at startup Stability AI. He said he doesn’t want Sakana to just be another company with an LLM.
Both Jones and Ha have unflattering things to say about OpenAI, which has brought the concept of generative AI to the mainstream but raised billions of dollars from Microsoft and other investors to do so. Ha described it as “becoming so big and a bit bureaucratic,” no different really than groups within Google.
Jones said he doesn’t think OpenAI is all that innovative. He said that for OpenAI’s two biggest successes, ChatGPT and the DALL-E service for creating images with a few words of text, the startup took research he performed at Google and applied it on a large scale, making refinements along the way but holding off on sharing the developments with the community. While OpenAI has released neither of the technologies under an open-source license, it has published papers on some of the underlying systems.
Representatives from Google and OpenAI didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Ha said Sakana has brought on a part-time researcher from academia, and the company will eventually hire more people. Asked if they’ve added any other Google employees, Ha said, “Not yet.”
Michael Intrator, co-founder and CEO of CoreWeave, speaks at the Semafor World Economy Summit during the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Spring meetings in Washington on April 25, 2025.
Kent Nishimura | Bloomberg | Getty Images
CoreWeave, a provider of infrastructure for artificial intelligence companies, reported better-than-expected third-quarter revenue on Monday, but the company delivered disappointing full-year guidance. The stock dropped 6% in extended trading.
Here’s how the company did in comparison with LSEG consensus:
Earnings: Loss of 22 cents per share
Revenue: $1.36 billion vs. $1.29 billion expected
Revenue in the quarter soared 134% from $583.9 million a year ago, according to a statement. The company reported a net loss of $110 million, narrowing from about $360 million in the same quarter last year.
CoreWeave’s growth is tied directly to the AI boom, as the company rents out Nvidia graphics processing units and has won business from leading cloud infrastructure providers, including Google and Microsoft. The company’s backlog now stands at $55.6 billion, with 2.9 gigawatts in contracted power, up from 2.2 gigawatts on June 30, according to the statement.
However, CoreWeave now sees 2025 revenue coming in between $5.05 billion and $5.15 billion, trailing the average analyst estimate of $5.29 billion, according to LSEG.
A third-party data center developer is behind schedule, CEO Mike Intrator said on the company’s earnings call. But he added that the delay won’t affect CoreWeave’s backlog.
“There was a problem at one data center that’s impacting us, but there are 32 data centers in our portfolio,” Intrator said.
During the quarter, CoreWeave announced a $6.5 billion expansion of its business with OpenAI and a six-year deal with Meta worth up to $14.2 billion. CoreWeave also received its sixth contract from “a leading hyperscaler.”
The company remains supply-constrained, Intrator said. The shortage is not in power but instead has to do with the availability of partly completed “powered-shell” data centers in which CoreWeave can set up its own equipment, he said.
Meanwhile, CoreWeave is building its own data center infrastructure from the ground up in Pennsylvania, he said.
“The overwhelming majority of the delay that you’re seeing should be taken care of within Q1 of next year.” Intrator said.
CoreWeave went public on the Nasdaq in March, selling shares at $40 each. On Monday the stock closed at $105.61, representing a 164% return. The Nasdaq has gained 32% over a similar period. CoreWeave shares slipped in extended trading on Monday.
Less than four months after its IPO, CoreWeave announced its intent to acquire data center infrastructure operator Core Scientific for $9 billion, but Core Scientific shareholders voted against the proposed deal.
CoreWeave’s 2026 capital expenditures should be “well in excess of double” the total for 2025, which will end up between $12 billion and $14 billion, said Nitin Agrawal, the company’s finance chief.
Every weekday, the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer releases the Homestretch — an actionable afternoon update, just in time for the last hour of trading on Wall Street. Markets: The S & P 500 jumped nearly 1.5% on Monday, as House members were called back to Washington to vote on a Senate deal to end the longest government shutdown in history. The Nasdaq surged more than 2%. With these gains, both indexes recovered nearly all of last week’s losses. A possible end to the 41-day shutdown, which has caused massive flight delays and cancellations and shaken consumer confidence in the economy, has put investors in a more risk-taking mood. Club holding Nvidia rose nearly 5% on Monday, after losing 7% last week in a tech rout driven by worries about valuations in stocks tied to the artificial intelligence boom. Monday’s rally isn’t just about tech. Consumer discretionary and materials sectors were also strong. In fact, eight of the 11 S & P 500 sector indexes were higher. Only real estate, utilities, and consumer staples were in the red. Wafer demand: Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang asked key manufacturing partner Taiwan Semiconductor to boost its wafer production, he told reporters over the weekend. This is a clear indication that Huang expects strong demand for Nvidia’s AI chips to continue. It also aligns with the “$500 billion in order visibility” comment the CEO made at the company’s GTC event a few weeks ago. Huang’s comments are obviously positive for Nvidia, but when we hear the word “wafer,” which is the basic building material used to make semiconductor chips, our mind immediately goes to the recent DuPont spinoff of Qnity Electronics. That’s because CEO Jon Kemp has repeatedly said that wafer starts are the best indicator of demand. Wafer starts refer to the number of new semiconductor wafers that initiate the manufacturing process in a fabrication plant. “Wafer starts, which are measured by MSI data, are one of the best indicators of demand for our products. You can see wafer starts have grown steadily with a long-term [compound annual growth rate] in the mid-single digits, demonstrating consistent positive growth,” Kemp said at the October Investor Day event. “Global fab capacity has steadily expanded to keep pace with that demand, increasingly driven by investments at the leading edge, which will approach $200 billion or more in coming years.” This comes as the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers’ Group, which provides market data for the silicon industry, reported last week that worldwide silicon wafer shipments increased by 3.1% year over year in the third quarter of 2025. The increase was driven by the demand for supporting AI applications. Looking ahead, SEMI expects global shipments will increase steadily through 2028. Club name Qnity stock is up about 6% on Monday, rebounding with other AI-related names. It’s unclear, however, how much of the move is tied to Huang’s comments. After all, trading in Qnity has been volatile since the spin was completed last Monday. Up next: We’ll continue to follow the events from Washington to see if a deal is made to reopen the government. On earnings, Paramount Skydance , CoreWeave , Rigetti Computing , AST SpaceMobile , Rocket Lab , and Occidental Petroleum report after the closing bell. Before the opening on Tuesday, Wall Street Nebius Group and Sea Limited will report earnings. – CNBC’s Matthew J. Belvedere contributed to this report. (See here for a full list of the stocks in Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust.) As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade. Jim waits 45 minutes after sending a trade alert before buying or selling a stock in his charitable trust’s portfolio. If Jim has talked about a stock on CNBC TV, he waits 72 hours after issuing the trade alert before executing the trade. THE ABOVE INVESTING CLUB INFORMATION IS SUBJECT TO OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND PRIVACY POLICY , TOGETHER WITH OUR DISCLAIMER . NO FIDUCIARY OBLIGATION OR DUTY EXISTS, OR IS CREATED, BY VIRTUE OF YOUR RECEIPT OF ANY INFORMATION PROVIDED IN CONNECTION WITH THE INVESTING CLUB. NO SPECIFIC OUTCOME OR PROFIT IS GUARANTEED.
A Waymo autonomous self-driving Jaguar electric vehicle sits parked at an EVgo charging station in Los Angeles, California, on May 15, 2024.
Patrick T. Fallon | AFP | Getty Images
Waymo has tapped Google executive Steve Fieler as its new chief financial officer, the self-driving company announced on Monday.
The new CFO comes as the Alphabet-owned company has been bringing its robotaxi service to more markets in the past year, with plans for further expansion in 2026. Fieler’s appointment also comes as Waymo looks toward its next phase, which could include seeking additional outside investment.
“Steve’s extensive experience will be instrumental in guiding us through this next chapter,” Waymo co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a LinkedIn post.
Mawakana also thanked previous Waymo finance chief Elisa de Martel for serving in the role since her appointment in 2022. Waymo declined to elaborate on de Martel, and de Martel did not respond to a request for comment.
“We’re wishing her the best as she embarks on her next chapter,” Mawakana wrote.
Fieler was a key member of Google’s CFO leadership team, where he served as vice president of planning, investments and investor relations, according to Waymo. Prior to that, Fieler worked as business finance officer for Google’s “Platforms and Ecosystems” unit, responsible for products including Android and Chrome.
Prior to Google, Fieler served as finance chief at HP. He’s also held various positions at various early-stage companies and at General Electric, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Alphabet’s segment “Other Bets,” which includes the Waymo unit, reported revenue of $344 million during the third quarter, down from $388 million the year prior. Losses also grew from $1.12 billion last year in the third quarter to $1.43 billion in the same period this year.
Waymo now offers a commercial service in the Los Angeles area, Phoenix, San Francisco, Atlanta and Austin. The company has also announced plans to start robotaxi services in Miami and Washington, D.C., in 2026, and Waymo said in August that it obtained permits to begin testing its autonomous vehicles with trained safety drivers in New York City.