Instacart CEO Fidji Simo is joining OpenAI

Fidji Simo, the current CEO of Instacart, is set to join OpenAI as CEO of Applications, the company announced on May 7. 

Simo, who has served as a board member at OpenAI since 2023, will begin transitioning out of her role at the grocery technology firm over the coming months and take up the new position later this year.

Her appointment comes as OpenAI seeks to expand the reach of its technology through consumer-facing tools like ChatGPT and enterprise applications powered by its artificial intelligence (AI) models. Simo will report directly to OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who continues to oversee the company's wider research, compute and applications divisions.

In a statement, Sam Altman said, "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. Serving as an OpenAI board member over the past year, Fidji has already contributed a great deal to our company. She will transition from her role at Instacart over the next few months and join OpenAI later this year."

Simo is expected to oversee the heads of key company functions including operations, finance and product, according to a report by Bloomberg. While Altman did not detail the scope of her responsibilities, he indicated that she would also play a role in scaling OpenAI's traditional company functions.

"In addition to supporting Fidji and our Applications teams, I will increase my focus on Research, Compute, and Safety Systems, which will continue to report directly to me," added Altman.

Before taking the helm at Instacart in 2021, Simo spent over a decade at Meta, where she held senior roles in product management and monetisation. Her tenure included leading the launch of advertising on the Facebook News Feed, overseeing video product development, and managing business strategy for the Facebook app. At Instacart, she helped steer the company to a public listing in 2023.

In a statement, Simo Fidji said, "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."

In another letter to her current employees, Simo has confirmed that her successor at Instacart would be a current member of the company's management, with a formal announcement expected soon.