OpenAI has hired Facebook and Instacart veteran Fidji Simo as its CEO of Applications, as the company prepares to turn a chaotic, unprofitable startup into a disciplined, publicly traded tech giant.
Simo’s appointment appears to be part of a wider shift that will free up CEO Sam Altman to focus on initiatives such as GPU technology, brain-computer interfaces, and consumer hardware, while remaining involved with OpenAI’s compute, research, and consumer hardware efforts with Jony Ive.
Reporting lines are yet to be finalised, but Simo is expected to oversee senior executives including COO Brad Lightcap, CFO Sarah Friar, CPO Kevin Weil, and software engineering chief Srinivas Narayanan.
Several of these executives are already closely aligned with Altman or have been CEOs themselves.