Breaking News: OpenAI's "No. 2 Figure" Resigns

ZheDongXi reported on July 10: Today, OpenAI's "second-in-command" Fidji Simo, the AGI Deployment CEO who previously led OpenAI's strategic transformation, announced in an internal letter that she has decided to step down from her full-time position at OpenAI and will serve as a part-time consultant for the company.

▲ Fidji Simo officially announced her departure on the X platform

The public widely anticipated that Simo, who previously headed OpenAI's product and business divisions, would take on a more critical leadership role after OpenAI goes public.

Simo led the early-stage work on OpenAI's "super app" initiative, whose outcome is the new version of the ChatGPT app released today. This app integrates two components, Codex and Work, tailored for programming and white-collar work scenarios respectively.

Prior to joining OpenAI in May 2025, Simo served as Vice President of Facebook and Head of the Facebook App, overseeing core businesses including feeds, groups, video, and advertising. During her tenure, she drove profitability and substantial expansion of Facebook's mobile business.

She also held the position of CEO of Instacart, leading the company to consecutive profitable quarters and a successful IPO, ending a more than one-year gap in large tech company IPOs on the US stock market at that time.

After joining OpenAI, Simo participated in the company's strategic planning and was the key driving force behind OpenAI's move earlier this year to disband teams including Sora, OpenAI Labs, and OpenAI for Science.

Leveraging her extensive professional network, Simo also brought in multiple executives with rich commercialization experience to OpenAI, including Denise Dresser, the current Chief Revenue Officer of OpenAI and former CEO of Slack.

Meanwhile, Simo was also deeply involved in the financing work originally led by OpenAI founder and CEO Sam Altman, participating in investor roadshows more frequently and becoming a primary point of contact between the public and OpenAI.

Since August last year, OpenAI's Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has reported directly to Simo instead of Altman, an unusual arrangement since a chief financial officer typically reports directly to the top leader of the company.

However, in early April this year, Simo suddenly announced she would take medical leave. She has long suffered from postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, a condition that easily causes fatigue and dizziness. People familiar with the matter revealed that she had missed meetings from time to time due to her illness.

Simo stated in today's internal memo that her product and business responsibilities will be shared by President Greg Brockman, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar, and Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon. OpenAI's Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser will report to Brockman.

Conclusion: OpenAI's Growth Slows Down, Simo Leaves a Power Vacuum

Simo's departure comes at a time when OpenAI is experiencing slowing growth. OpenAI originally set a target of reaching 1 billion monthly active users by the end of last year, but this milestone was not achieved until June this year, a delay of more than half a year.

At the same time, OpenAI is also facing fierce competition from Anthropic, which is gaining strong momentum in the enterprise market, where OpenAI is still playing catch-up.

Simo's departure may create a short-term power vacuum in OpenAI's product team. It is worth continuous attention to see how OpenAI will coordinate its two major business lines targeting consumers (To-C) and enterprises (To-B) in the future.

This article is from the WeChat Official Account "ZheDongXi" (ID: zhidxcom), written by Chen Junda, and published with authorization from 36Kr.