Stimulating the vitality of innovation entities is an important aspect of enhancing the overall efficiency of the national innovation system and building a world’s science and technology country in the knowledge economy era. The phenomenon of talents mobility is a manifestation of talent competition among universities. However, the problem whether the phenomenon can improve the basic research and innovation output and the corresponding mechanism remains to be clarified. Based on the data of papers published by Chinese universities in the Web of Science database from 2008 to 2018, this article uses fixed effects models and instrumental variable methods to answer the question of how to improve the efficiency of basic research from the perspective of academic talent mobility. Research has found that talent mobility in universities can promote knowledge spillover, thereby improving the efficiency of basic research output in universities. Mechanism analysis shows that talent flow between universities can improve research efficiency by increasing the number of collaborative papers among researchers and better matching between incoming scholars and universities. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the impact of talent influx on basic research innovation output is more significant in 985 universities, social science fields, and talent flow to eastern universities. This study provides a reference for how to improve the efficiency of basic research output and unleash the dividend of academic talents at the current stage.