Move Creator Sam Blackshear Leaves Mysten Labs for Anthropic

Blackshear, who helped build the Sui blockchain, announced his departure on August 6 via social media. He plans to transition into a hands-on role at Anthropic, though he has not specified his project scope or reporting lines. At Mysten Labs, CEO Evan Cheng will assume responsibility for the company’s technical vision. Blackshear intends to maintain an advisory relationship with the firm and continue supporting the Sui ecosystem.

His shift to AI-driven security follows a period of rapid development at Anthropic, where models like Claude Opus 4.6 are increasingly used to identify software vulnerabilities. Blackshear’s expertise in static analysis and automated bug finding, honed during his time at Meta and as the architect of Move, aligns with the company’s recent efforts to bolster defensive cyber research. While the move leaves a leadership gap at Mysten, Blackshear emphasized that he remains committed to his long-term goal of establishing a Move Foundation, an initiative currently in the early planning stages.