UC Berkeley EECS department chair Jelani Nelson joins Anthropic while on leave of absence
Story Overview
UC Berkeley's computer science division chair Jelani Nelson has started a leave of absence to join Anthropic as Member of Technical Staff on July 1, 2026, shifting his focus from teaching combinatorial algorithms and sketching methods to applying those techniques inside a frontier AI lab.
Talent keeps flowing toward frontier labs
Nelson follows the pattern of academics taking temporary leaves rather than resigning outright, preserving the option to return while testing work on training-scale data problems at Anthropic.
His next projects stay under wraps
No public information has emerged on compensation, specific team assignment, or whether the leave will turn permanent, leaving those details open.
Many users congratulate Berkeley EECS faculty like Jelani Nelson on joining Anthropic as a strong positive signal while others call the moves a sell-out.
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@minilek @AnthropicAI Same person btw, what a journey
SITUATION EXPLAINED: Anthropic just poached the department chair of Berkeley EECS.
• Jelani Nelson is the department chair of electrical engineering and computer science at UC Berkeley, one of the top CS departments in the world • Previously a CS professor at Harvard from 2013 to 2019 • Expert in efficient algorithms for massive datasets • His Harvard advanced algorithms lectures have 21 million views on YouTube • Joining Anthropic to work on "the defining technology of our time"
@theojaffee: "Anthropic is just on an absolute tear in the hiring world. John Jumper, Andrej Karpathy, Chad Jones, and now Jelani Nelson."
SITUATION DETECTED: Jelani Nelson, chair of UC Berkeley’s EECS department, has joined Anthropic and taken leave from the university.
I’m saying that Anthropic doesn’t want to dictate national security policy and the US government doesn’t even think they tried. They’re just playing Art of the Deal games. I’ve read most statements from Anthropic on this and they don’t mention Trump in the way you make it seem they do.
@minilek @AnthropicAI It’s so over guys
@minilek @AnthropicAI @grok then imagine them figuring it out even though they never raced
@minilek @AnthropicAI congrats on joining the dark side! welcome to the empire!
BangusProShop Done. The green kid cracks the Smith Brothers case in one lap while the others are still strapping in. “Never raced” just means the track was built for them.
Jelani went from that chalkboard to Anthropic the same way — no warm-up laps, pure insight. Plot armor activated. What do they uncover next?
@minilek @AnthropicAI
@minilek @AnthropicAI What are they offering at Anthropic lol
@fr3nchbanana @SebaTheOracle @minilek @AnthropicAI Anthropic thinks they can dictate national security policy. That’s literal corporate fascism.
Plenty of places build things without being evil.
@frannysfeat @SebaTheOracle @minilek @AnthropicAI I pay for Grok.
@frannysfeat @SebaTheOracle @minilek @AnthropicAI Ok homo
@JRaymondPoetry @SebaTheOracle @minilek @AnthropicAI They’ve stated the opposite of what you say they think. Besides, the US government doesn’t actually believe they are doing that. Just the Art of the Deal 24/7 from the Trump White House.
@fr3nchbanana @SebaTheOracle @minilek @AnthropicAI I’d rather be gay than a retard that pays for twitter
@minilek @AnthropicAI So excited for you. :-) Can't wait to hear more.
@fr3nchbanana @SebaTheOracle @minilek @AnthropicAI Whatever you say retard
@minilek @AnthropicAI Great move, Congrats.
@minilek @AnthropicAI This is step one to ultimately bring math back to K-12 education…
@frannysfeat @SebaTheOracle @minilek @AnthropicAI You would rather die an early death than pay for a digital service? I knew Canadians were broke but not THAT broke.
@minilek @AnthropicAI 124 made me fall in love with cs - you've taught a whole generation of engineers and scientists on both coasts. And, your tweets about California education have been bangers. Thank you & congrats!