OpenAI is hiring Fidji Simo — the CEO of grocery delivery firm Instacart — to be the new CEO of OpenAI Applications.
Simo will report directly to Sam Altman, who will remain the CEO of OpenAI and will continue to oversee the company’s three pillars – Research, Compute, and Applications – ensuring they stay aligned and integrated across all areas.
Applications brings together a group of existing business and operational teams responsible for how OpenAI research reaches and benefits the world. Simo has been an OpenAI board member over the past year. She will transition from her role at Instacart over the next few months and join OpenAI later this year.
Simo sent the email below last night to Instacart employees. You can read it in full here:
Hi team – I want to share an important update with you that I will be leaving Instacart in the coming months to take on a new role as CEO of OpenAI Applications, leading the product, business, and other company functions.
Let me start by saying this was an incredibly hard decision because I love this company. We are operating incredibly well as our last earnings results have shown. Our strategy is working and this team is top notch, which makes it very hard to leave.
At the same time, you all know my passion for AI generally and in particular for the potential it has to cure diseases — the ability to lead such an important part of our collective future was a hard opportunity to pass up. I only feel comfortable doing this because Instacart is on an excellent track and in great hands with a stellar management team.
I want to be clear that this change is not immediate. I’m not going anywhere for a couple of months. Our board regularly conducts succession planning exercises, and we expect the new CEO will be announced soon and will be an existing member of our management team. I’ll remain CEO and work closely with my successor and our leadership team to ensure a smooth handoff. I’ll also stay on as Chair of the Board to support our next CEO.
I also want to apologize for how unexpected this may feel. This is not how I planned for you all to hear this news, but a media leak unfortunately expedited the timeline by several weeks.
Leading Instacart and being on this journey with you has been an honor. From resetting growth in the post-pandemic years and proving to the world that we could be profitable, to successfully taking this company public and hitting $1B in an annual advertising & other revenue run rate, to expanding to restaurants and transforming the in-store experience with Caper Carts, and even just this week launching a completely new app, Fizz, in record time — we have proven that we can take any challenges and turn them into massive opportunities. I’m deeply proud of the work we’ve done together and even more excited about the road ahead.
Tomorrow, I’ll host a Town Hall where we can talk about this in more detail and I can answer your questions. Thank you so much – looking forward to talking to you all tomorrow.
Fidji.
