Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s second-highest executive, is stepping down from his full-time position, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In a staff memo on Thursday, Simo said his ongoing medical leave had proven longer and more difficult than expected and he would instead transition to a part-time advisory role. Simo joined OpenAI’s Board of Directors in 2024 and joined OpenAI as Applications CEO in May 2025. He then consolidated the company’s business and product operations by creating a new role reporting directly to Sam Altman.
These movements were integrated into a broader reporting shift. COO Brad Lightcap, CFO Sarah Friar, and CPO Kevin Weil all began reporting to her, and Altman stepped down to focus on research, computing, and safety.
Simo first went public with his health issues in April when he announced he would be taking medical leave due to a recurrence of a neuroimmune disease. It was also shared publicly in the same memo that Lightcap was moving into a new “special projects” role and that CMO Kate Rouch was leaving the company to focus on her cancer recovery. Afterwards, Wale also left the company.
Simo comes to OpenAI from Instacart, where he served as CEO since 2021 and led the company through its IPO in 2023, and prior to that, he spent more than a decade at Meta, including running Facebook apps.
Simo’s decision to step down permanently leaves Altman searching for a successor as OpenAI itself races to close the corporate gap with Anthropic with a possible IPO in mind. She is widely seen as a likely candidate to take on more responsibility once OpenAI goes public, leaving a real void for CEO Sam Altman to fill.
Simo was primarily focused on growing OpenAI’s consumer business. But ChatGPT’s growth cooled off late last year, missing internal revenue targets and forcing the company to focus more on coding tools instead. This sector continues to track Anthropic to this day.
If you purchase through links in our articles, we may receive a small commission. This does not affect our editorial independence.
