Fidji Simo is leaving her full-time position as OpenAI’s second-in-command, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
She announced in a staff note on Thursday that her medical leave, taken for a relapse of a neuroimmune condition, has lasted longer than anticipated. She will now move to a part-time advisory role instead.
Simo joined OpenAI in May 2025 as CEO of Applications. She took over the newly created role reporting directly to Sam Altman. This position consolidated the company’s business and product operations.
The change came with a wider reporting shift. COO Brad Lightcap, CFO Sarah Friar, and CPO Kevin Weil all began reporting to her. Altman stepped back to focus on research, compute, and safety.
Simo first disclosed her health issues in April. It was in that same memo that it was shared publicly that Lightcap moved into a new special projects role. CMO Kate Rouch left the company to focus on cancer recovery. Weil has since left the company too.
Simo came to OpenAI from Instacart, where she was CEO since 2021 and led the company through its 2023 IPO. Before that, she spent over a decade at Meta, including running the Facebook app.
Simo’s decision to step back permanently leaves Altman searching for a successor right as OpenAI eyes a possible IPO and races to close the enterprise distance with Anthropic. She was widely seen as a likely candidate to take on even more responsibility once OpenAI went public. This creates a real vacuum for him to address.
Simo was primarily focused on growing OpenAI’s consumer business. ChatGPT’s growth cooled late last year, missing internal revenue targets. This pushed the company to lean harder into coding tools. It is an area where the company trails Anthropic.
TechCrunch has reached out to OpenAI for more information.
Executive depth
OpenAI’s executive ranks appear thin for a company that was most recently assigned an $852 billion valuation. In addition to Altman, Lightcap, Friar, and co-founder Greg Brockman, its bench includes Denise Dresser. She joined in December as chief revenue officer, overseeing global revenue strategy across enterprise and customer success.
It would not be surprising to see Dresser take on a more expansive role. She previously spent two years as the CEO of Slack. Before that, she spent 14 years with Slack’s parent company, Salesforce.
Equity changes
Simo’s departure comes against another backdrop worth understanding. OpenAI has shifted its approach to employee equity. In April of last year, the company shortened its vesting cliff from the industry-standard 12 months to 6 months. Then in December, OpenAI eliminated the cliff altogether for new hires. Equity now starts vesting from day one.
The move was described internally by Simo as a way to let employees take risks without fear of losing equity if let go early. It came amid an escalating AI talent war. It reflects how aggressively OpenAI has been spending to retain staff. The company was projected to spend $6 billion on stock-based compensation in 2025 alone.
None of the aforementioned exits appear tied to compensation. Senior executives’ executive equity packages are typically negotiated individually and could have entirely different vesting terms.
