OpenAI's No. 2 Executive Steps Down to Part-Time Advisor Role

Fidji Simo is stepping down from her full-time executive role at OpenAI. In a staff note Thursday, she said her medical leave has proven longer and harder than expected and that she will transition to a part-time advisory role. Simo joined OpenAI’s board of directors in 2024 and joined the company in May 2025 as CEO of Applications.

The role consolidated the company’s business and product operations and reported directly to Sam Altman. COO Brad Lightcap, CFO Sarah Friar, and CPO Kevin Weil began reporting to her after the appointment, while Altman stepped back to focus on research, compute, and safety. Simo first disclosed her health issues in April, announcing medical leave for a relapse of a neuroimmune condition.

That memo also stated that Lightcap was moving into a new “special projects” role and that CMO Kate Rouch was leaving to focus on cancer recovery. Kevin Weil has since left the company. Simo came to OpenAI from Instacart, where she had been CEO since 2021 and led the company through its 2023 IPO.

She previously spent over a decade at Meta, including running the Facebook app. The announcement came on the same day OpenAI launched the GPT-5.6 family of models and a new agent called ChatGPT Work. OpenAI was most recently assigned an $852 billion valuation and was projected to spend $6 billion on stock-based compensation in 2025.