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OpenAI appoints Instacart’s Fidji Simo as its first CEO of Applications
The newly created role will focus on scaling the company’s suite of consumer products, including its flagship AI assistant, ChatGPT.
Simo’s leadership is expected to bring not just scale, but operational rigor and user-centric design to the forefront of OpenAI’s product roadmap.
OpenAI has appointed Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart and former Facebook app chief, as its first CEO of Applications. The newly created role will focus on scaling the company’s suite of consumer products, including its flagship AI assistant, ChatGPT.
Announcing the hire on X, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Simo will report directly to him, allowing him to deepen focus on the company’s core pillars - research, compute infrastructure and AI safety, especially as it moves toward the next frontier — superintelligence.
so excited that @fidjissimo is joining openai in a new role: ceo of applications, reporting to me.
— Sam Altman (@sama) May 8, 2025
i'll remain ceo of openai, but in this new configuration i'll be able to increase my focus on research, compute, and safety.
these are critical as we approach superintelligence.
“Fidji is exceptional,” Altman wrote. “We’ve worked closely over the past year, and I’ve seen firsthand her commitment to our mission.”
The appointment marks a turning point in OpenAI’s evolution. Once known primarily for its research breakthroughs, the company is now doubling down on consumer-grade scale, usability and product excellence. Simo’s pedigree—leading Facebook’s core app to billions of users and transforming Instacart into a tech-forward public company, makes her uniquely suited to guide OpenAI’s apps through this hypergrowth phase.
Altman hinted at massive ambitions, stating that OpenAI’s application layer must grow “10x—or 100x". Simo’s leadership is expected to bring not just scale, but operational rigor and user-centric design to the forefront of OpenAI’s product roadmap.
SPOTLIGHT
The leaders highlighted how AI is emerging as a critical enabler in this shift from marketing’s traditional focus on new customers to a more sustainable model of driving growth from existing accounts.
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