Fidji Simo, currently Instacart’s CEO, in that expanded CEO role later this year. She will soon be taking on the role of Application CEO at OpenAI. Combined with a strong record of product-led monetization, Simo should help OpenAI further tighten their operational impact. Her tenure at OpenAI’s board of directors for the past year has raised eyebrows. This experience has provided her with strong context and knowledge of the organization’s mission and goals.
She plans to leave her position at Instacart during the next few months. She will remain chair of the Instacart board. Her extensive experience running business operations makes her well-equipped to help OpenAI scale its applications quickly and effectively. Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, expressed confidence in Simo’s ability to lead the Applications group, which integrates various teams responsible for delivering OpenAI’s research to the public.
“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,” said Altman. He pointed out that Simo has already had an outsized impact in her short time on the board.
In her remarks on her new role, Simo pointed to the pivotal moment that she is coming on board at OpenAI. She expressed her commitment to advancing the organization’s mission, stating, “Joining OpenAI at this critical moment is an incredible privilege and responsibility. 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.”
Simo is looking forward to riding a creative wave of change. She’ll be leading the Applications group, a team that plays a monumental role in determining how OpenAI’s research impacts users and society at large. Under her leadership, the Applications group is working to simplify processes that already exist and improve collaboration between different teams.
Altman will take on the role of CEO of OpenAI’s other verticals, which include research and compute. We are looking forward to the productive partnership that will help develop groundbreaking strategies which will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of OpenAI’s results.
Fidji Simo’s LinkedIn profile here. Her new appointment to OpenAI is a tremendous achievement. It advances the organization’s overall aspirations in the field of artificial intelligence.
