Fidji Simo Steps Back From OpenAI's Top Product Job Amid Health Struggles

Fidji Simo, OpenAI's chief executive of AGI deployment, is leaving her full-time position at the company to become a part-time adviser. The transition follows a medical leave she took after a chronic illness took a serious turn for the worse.

Simo explained the decision in a post on X Thursday, writing that she went on leave three months ago "after a severe exacerbation of a chronic illness" she's dealt with for seven years. She said it became clear during that time that "the road to recovery would be much longer and more complex than I had anticipated—and that I needed to focus on it fully."

The illness is postural tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, a condition affecting blood circulation that Simo was diagnosed with back in 2019. She'd been managing a significant relapse right around the time she joined OpenAI. In an April memo to staff announcing her temporary departure, Simo said she had been putting off medical tests and treatment to avoid missing work. "It's now clear that I've pushed a little too far and I really need to try new interventions to stabilize my health," she told employees at the time.

Simo's path at OpenAI moved fast. She joined the company's board in March 2024, and the following year Sam Altman brought her on to run product and business operations, a move designed to free him up to concentrate on research and the company's massive data center expansion. Before OpenAI, she spent time as CEO of Instacart and ran the core Facebook app at Meta.

A Reshuffled Org Chart

Simo's leave didn't happen in isolation. It arrived alongside a broader executive reshuffle at OpenAI. Brad Lightcap, the company's former COO, shifted into a role focused on special projects. Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president and cofounder, picked up oversight of product strategy. And in the months since Simo stepped back, OpenAI reorganized its product teams again, putting Thibault Sottiaux in charge of core products, including ChatGPT itself.

That consolidation isn't random. OpenAI is narrowing its focus to a handful of core products as it prepares for an IPO now expected in 2027, with the company reportedly aiming for a valuation around $1 trillion. Part of that strategy has meant merging teams that were previously working separately on ChatGPT, the company's AI-powered browser, and its AI coding agent, with the goal of building what's been described internally as a "superapp." OpenAI has also cut loose more experimental projects that didn't fit that focus, including Sora.

A Big Week for ChatGPT, Too

Simo's announcement landed on the same day OpenAI rolled out what it's calling the biggest update to ChatGPT since launch. The company introduced an AI agent built into ChatGPT capable of taking action on a user's behalf, including moving local files and writing code, alongside a redesigned desktop app. The update effectively brings capabilities that were previously exclusive to Codex, OpenAI's coding tool, into the main ChatGPT product, letting users spin up custom software projects directly through the app.

Taken together, the timing underscores just how much OpenAI is in flux right now. The company is simplifying its leadership structure and its product lineup at the same time, all while racing toward an IPO and trying to keep pace with its own AI development. Simo's departure from day-to-day operations removes one of the people Altman had specifically brought in to help him offload responsibility so he could focus elsewhere. How her portfolio gets distributed among Brockman, Sottiaux, and the rest of the reshuffled leadership team will say a lot about where OpenAI's product priorities actually sit heading into 2027.