Instacart CEO Fidji Simo to Join OpenAI as CEO of Applications
Fidji, who has served on OpenAI’s board, will take on a leadership role at the AI company later this year.
Fidji Simo, CEO, Instacart
SAN FRANCISCO, May 8, 2025 — Fidji Simo, CEO of Instacart, will join OpenAI later this year as CEO of Applications, the company announced Thursday. Fidji, who has been on OpenAI’s board for the past year, will transition out of her role at Instacart over the coming months.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Fidji’s leadership in product management and monetization makes her uniquely qualified to lead OpenAI’s Applications division. She will report directly to Altman, who will continue overseeing other key areas such as research, compute, and applications.
“Applications brings together a group of business and operational teams responsible for how our research reaches and benefits the world, and Fidji is uniquely qualified to lead this group,” Altman wrote in a blog post. “She has already contributed greatly to our company and will help us scale OpenAI’s functions to benefit humanity.”
Fidji’s new role will also involve helping OpenAI scale traditional business functions, although Altman did not provide further details on her responsibilities. According to Bloomberg, Fidji’s leadership team will include Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap, Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar, and Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil.
With years of experience in product management, Fidji previously spent more than a decade at Meta, where she led the launch of advertising on the News Feed and helped build the company’s advertising business. In 2021, Fidji joined Instacart, where she played a key role in taking the company public in 2023.
Fidji confirmed in a post on X that she would remain chair of Instacart’s board and said a successor would be named soon.
“Joining OpenAI at this critical moment is an incredible privilege and responsibility,” Fidji said in a statement. “This organization has the potential to accelerate human potential at a pace never seen before, and I am deeply committed to shaping these applications toward the public good.”
Joining OpenAI at this critical moment is an incredible privilege and responsibility.
