Fidji Simo Leaves OpenAI at a Critical Time

Fidji Simo Steps Down from OpenAI, Departing at a Critical Time

Fidji Simo, OpenAI's number two, is stepping down from her full-time role, reports the Wall Street Journal.

In a note to staff on Thursday, Simo indicated that her ongoing medical leave has turned out to be longer and more challenging than expected, and she will transition to a part-time advisory role. Simo joined OpenAI's board in 2024 and became the CEO of Applications in May 2025, a newly created position that reported directly to Sam Altman and consolidated the company's business and product operations.

Her appointment came with a broader reporting change: COO Brad Lightcap, CFO Sarah Friar, and CPO Kevin Weil all began reporting to her, while Altman stepped back to focus on research, computing, and safety.

Simo first revealed her health issues in April when she announced she was taking medical leave due to a relapse of a neuro-immune condition; this same note publicly announced that Lightcap was moving to a new role in "special projects" and that CMO Kate Rouch was leaving the company to focus on her cancer recovery. Since then, Weil has also left the company.

Simo joined OpenAI from Instacart, where she had been CEO since 2021 and led the company through its IPO in 2023. Prior to that, she spent over a decade at Meta, including leading the Facebook app.

Simo's decision to step down permanently leaves Altman searching for a successor as OpenAI considers a potential IPO. She was widely seen as a likely candidate to take on even more responsibilities once OpenAI went public, creating a significant gap for him to fill.

Simo had primarily focused on growing OpenAI's consumer business. However, the growth of ChatGPT slowed at the end of last year, missing internal revenue targets, prompting the company to focus more on coding tools, an area where it has lagged behind Anthropic.

TechCrunch reached out to OpenAI for more information. Shortly after the Journal's article was published, Simo shared the news directly on X, after which Altman responded, also on X: “I’m really sad about this and very grateful for everything Fidji has done for OpenAI, and even grateful for her friendship and who she is as a person. We all wish her a speedy recovery. It’s really unfortunate.”

Simo's announcement comes on a busy news day for OpenAI. Earlier on Thursday, the company launched its new family of models GPT-5.6 — Sol, Terra, and Luna — as well as a new agent called ChatGPT Work, designed to handle multi-step office tasks such as drafting documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. Both launches were presented by OpenAI as directly targeting Anthropic.

OpenAI's executive ranks appear, from the outside, somewhat light for a company recently valued at $852 billion. In addition to Altman, Lightcap, Friar, and co-founder Greg Brockman (who is also the company's president and oversaw product strategy during Simo's absence), the team includes Denise Dresser, who joined the company in December as Chief Revenue Officer, overseeing its "global revenue strategy across the company and customer success," according to a statement at the time.

It would not be surprising to see Dresser take on a broader role, given that she previously spent two years as CEO of Slack and, before that, spent 14 years at Slack's parent company, Salesforce.

Simo's departure occurs in a broader context that is important to understand: OpenAI's changing approach to employee equity. In April of last year, the month Simo joined the company, it reduced its vesting timeline — the waiting period before stock grants for new hires begin to vest — from 12 months to 6 months. Then, in December, OpenAI completely eliminated this timeline for new hires, allowing stocks to begin vesting from day one.

This decision, described internally by Simo as a way to allow employees to "take risks" without fearing the loss of stock in the event of early termination, came amid a growing war for AI talent and reflects how aggressively OpenAI has spent to retain its staff. The company was projected to spend $6 billion on stock-based compensation alone in 2025.

None of the departures mentioned appear to be related to compensation. Executive equity packages are typically negotiated individually and could have entirely different vesting terms.