{"id":477770,"date":"2026-02-16T03:52:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:52:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/477770\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T03:52:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T03:52:29","slug":"the-ceo-of-google-deepmind-juggles-another-job-as-the-founder-of-a-multibillion-dollar-startup-by-starting-a-second-workday-at-10-p-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/477770\/","title":{"rendered":"The CEO of Google DeepMind juggles another job as the founder of a multibillion-dollar startup by starting a second workday at 10 p.m."},"content":{"rendered":"

While many CEOs set their alarm clocks for a 5 a.m. wake-up time, Google<\/a> DeepMind<\/a> CEO Demis Hassabis<\/a> has just hit the pillow after his second work shift of the day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t sleep very much,\u201d Hassabis recently said on<\/a> Fortune\u2019s Titans and Disruptors of Industry podcast with editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell. \u201cI do try and get six [hours], but I have unusual sleeping habits I sort of manage during the day. [I] try and pack my day in the office with as many meetings as possible, back-to-back, almost no time, no break between.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AI pioneer has been on a winning streak since 2014, when he sold his AI company, DeepMind, to tech behemoth Google<\/a>. The acquisition itself stoked fear among<\/a> his competitors; Meta<\/a> CEO Mark Zuckerberg<\/a>\u2019s higher offer was declined, and outraged by the deal, fellow tech mogul Elon Musk<\/a> launched OpenAI<\/a> with Sam Altman<\/a> as a countermeasure<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A decade later, Hassabis oversees all of Google\u2019s AI ventures, including its popular tool Gemini<\/a>. And in what little spare time he has, Hassabis also won the<\/a> Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 2024, while leading a startup aiming to solve disease with AI: Isomorphic Labs<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yet after a long day of work running DeepMind, the CEO still isn\u2019t ready to catch some well-deserved shut-eye. Once his daytime shift is over, he takes a short break before delving right back into his job\u2014with no meetings or distractions to interrupt his flow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get home, spend a little bit of time with family, have dinner, and then I sort of start a second day of work about 10 p.m. and go to 4 a.m., where I do my thinking and more creative work and research work. And it\u2019s worked out,\u201d Hassabis continued. \u201cI come alive at about 1 a.m.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Reddit to Airbnb: These executives love to work late into the night\u00a0<\/p>\n

Hassabis isn\u2019t the only one leading a successful business on his own timeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Airbnb<\/a> cofounder and CEO Brian Chesky also isn\u2019t one to<\/a> \u201crise and grind\u201d like other entrepreneurs. Chesky gets his energy at night, after his workout routine that wraps up around 9:30 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He hits peak productivity at 10 p.m., lasting until he falls asleep around 2:30 a.m. And since he\u2019s the boss of his $73 billion short-term rental business, he gets to set the rules; his late bedtime means no meetings at the crack of dawn the next day, as 10 a.m. is the earliest Chesky will go.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I had a girlfriend, that would probably change,\u201d Chesky told<\/a> the Wall Street Journal last year. \u201cBut I don\u2019t, so I\u2019ll enjoy this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other founders including Reddit\u2019s Alexis Ohanian fall more into the night owl camp than the early-riser pack. He goes to sleep at around 2 a.m. everyday\u2014hours later than the many CEOs who have already snoozed off.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI try not to have the computer in the bedroom,\u201d Ohanian told Fast Company in a 2013 interview<\/a>. \u201cI used to sleep with it, though. I used to wake up spooning my laptop.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the global chief brand officer of French sports label Salomon, Scott Mellin, isn\u2019t too keen on arriving at his job at the crack of dawn either. He reserves those early morning hours to ski or ride his bike, thinking \u201cdeeply about the business\u201d before clocking in. The executive prefers to go into the<\/a> office when others are peeling off for lunch\u2014and sticks around later before attending other work-related obligations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI spend my morning skiing or riding my bike, which gives me time to think deeply about the business before heading to the office at noon,\u201d Mellin told Fortune<\/a> last year. \u201cI work later into the evening or head out for dinner with clients or partners. It might be different, but it is a routine I\u2019ve stuck to for over 25 years.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While many CEOs set their alarm clocks for a 5 a.m. wake-up time, Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,36209,99154,276,277,116137,45,49,48,2926,23084,250,1128,137,7564,62404,1948,192,15740,890,78816,278,2522,2747,409,61,44242,3442],"class_list":{"0":"post-477770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-airbnb","10":"tag-alexis-ohanian","11":"tag-artificial-intelligence","12":"tag-artificialintelligence","13":"tag-brian-chesky","14":"tag-business","15":"tag-ca","16":"tag-canada","17":"tag-chief-executive-officer-ceo","18":"tag-creativity","19":"tag-elon-musk","20":"tag-entrepreneurs","21":"tag-entrepreneurship","22":"tag-executives","23":"tag-fortune-500-titans-and-disruptors-of-industry","24":"tag-founders","25":"tag-google","26":"tag-google-deepmind","27":"tag-lifestyle","28":"tag-meetings","29":"tag-openai","30":"tag-reddit","31":"tag-sam-altman","32":"tag-sleep","33":"tag-technology","34":"tag-work-life","35":"tag-work-life-balance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}