Last Updated on May 8, 2025 by factkeeps
In a major shake-up in Silicon Valley’s leadership landscape, Instacart CEO Fidji Simo is set to join OpenAI as the CEO of Applications, the artificial intelligence giant announced on Thursday. Simo, who has served on OpenAI’s board of directors for over a year, will transition out of her role at Instacart over the coming months and begin her new position full-time later this year.
Simo’s new role at OpenAI will place her at the helm of the company’s Applications division—an area that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman described as critical to the company’s efforts in delivering cutting-edge AI technology to the public. The Applications group includes ChatGPT and other consumer and enterprise products that translate OpenAI’s research into real-world tools.
Altman will continue as OpenAI’s CEO, overseeing broader domains including research, compute infrastructure, and applications. Simo will report directly to him.
“Applications brings together a group of existing business and operational teams responsible for how our research reaches and benefits the world, and Fidji is uniquely qualified to lead this group,” Altman said in a blog post. “Serving as an OpenAI board member over the past year, Fidji has already contributed a great deal to our company. She will transition from her role at Instacart over the next few months and join OpenAI later this year.”
Simo, in a statement shared on X (formerly Twitter), expressed her enthusiasm for the new challenge. “Joining OpenAI at this critical moment is an incredible privilege and responsibility,” she said. “This organization has the potential of accelerating human potential at a pace never seen before and I am deeply committed to shaping these applications toward the public good.”
She also shared that she would remain involved with Instacart as chair of the board. In a letter to Instacart employees, she noted that a current member of the company’s leadership would be stepping in as CEO, with an announcement on her successor expected soon.
Simo’s move to OpenAI marks the latest transition for a leader who has long been at the intersection of technology, innovation, and consumer platforms. Before joining Instacart in 2021, she spent over a decade at Meta (formerly Facebook), where she played a critical role in building and scaling some of the platform’s most impactful products. Her responsibilities included launching ads in the Facebook News Feed, driving monetization efforts for the Facebook app, developing Facebook Video, and shaping the company’s core advertising business. She ultimately rose to become head of the Facebook app.
At Instacart, Simo helped steer the online grocery delivery service through rapid pandemic-driven growth, product expansion, and eventually a public offering in 2023. Her leadership brought strategic clarity to Instacart’s evolving role in the digital grocery economy, balancing consumer needs with retailer partnerships.
Now, at OpenAI, Simo is expected to use her background in product development and business operations to scale the company’s suite of AI applications, including ChatGPT, which now has over 100 million weekly users. Altman also mentioned that Simo will assist in developing “traditional” company functions, though he did not specify which ones.
This leadership change comes as OpenAI continues to evolve from a pure research lab into a powerful player in commercial AI services, competing with the likes of Google, Microsoft, and Anthropic. With Simo at the helm of applications, the company is signaling a greater emphasis on user experience, monetization strategy, and product scale—areas where her expertise is unmatched.
With AI Inputs: This news article was developed using generative AI tools to assist in summarizing official statements, synthesizing background information, and ensuring clarity in reporting.
