Fidji Simo, one of the most senior executives at OpenAI, is stepping down from her full-time role to focus on recovering from a chronic illness, she said, and will stay on in a part-time advisory capacity. The move, reported by TechCrunch, removes a prominent figure from the day-to-day leadership of the company behind ChatGPT less than a year after she joined it.
Her role
Simo joined OpenAI in 2025 to lead its applications business, a newly created position overseeing the company's products and commercial operations and reporting to the chief executive, Sam Altman. She had been widely described as OpenAI's second-ranking executive, with much of the company's product and business side under her remit. She arrived with a substantial track record in the technology industry: she previously ran the grocery-delivery company Instacart and, before that, spent more than a decade at Meta, where her responsibilities included the main Facebook app.
What she said
In announcing the change, Simo said she had been dealing with a chronic condition and that her recovery had proven harder and longer than she had expected, CNBC reported. She framed the shift to a part-time advisory role as a way to keep contributing to the company while giving herself the room to recover, and thanked colleagues for supporting her. Details of her health are hers to share, and beyond her own account of a long-standing illness, the company has not elaborated. Altman, for his part, expressed sadness at the change and gratitude for her work, and wished her a full recovery.
What happens next
Simo's departure from the executive ranks leaves OpenAI to redistribute a large portfolio at a busy moment for the company, which is racing to turn its research into products and to build a durable business around them. According to the reporting, her responsibilities are being divided among senior leaders rather than handed to a single successor, and OpenAI did not immediately say whether the applications role she held would continue in its current form. As an adviser, she is expected to stay involved in areas including consumer products and health, a field she has spoken about with personal interest.
The wider picture
Executive turnover is not unusual at fast-growing technology companies, and OpenAI has seen a number of senior comings and goings as it has expanded at speed. Simo's case is different in kind, prompted by health rather than strategy or dispute, and both she and the company have described the transition in cooperative terms. Her reduced role nonetheless marks a notable change at the top of one of the most closely watched companies in technology, and a reminder that even the most senior careers can be reshaped by circumstances that have nothing to do with the work itself.
