OpenAI No. 2 executive Fidji Simo steps down

Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s No. 2 executive, is stepping down from her full-time role, according to The Wall Street Journal. In a staff note Thursday, Simo said her ongoing medical leave has proven longer and harder than expected, and that she will transition to a part-time advisory role instead. She first disclosed her health issues in April, when she said she was taking medical leave for a relapse of a neuroimmune condition. Simo joined OpenAI’s board of directors in 2024 and became CEO of Applications in May 2025, a role that put the company’s business and product operations under her, reporting directly to Sam Altman.

Simo’s decision to step back permanently leaves Altman searching for a successor as OpenAI eyes a possible IPO — a vacuum made more pointed because she had been widely seen as a likely candidate to take on more responsibility once OpenAI went public. Her exit follows a string of other departures: former CPO Kevin Weil has left the company altogether, COO Brad Lightcap has moved into a special-projects role, and former CMO Kate Rouch is leaving the company to focus on cancer recovery.

Simo had been primarily focused on growing OpenAI’s consumer business, but ChatGPT’s growth cooled late last year and missed internal revenue targets, pushing OpenAI to lean harder into coding tools — an area where it is, for now, trailing Anthropic. With Simo departing, it wouldn’t be shocking to see chief revenue officer Denise Dresser take on a more expansive role. Dresser joined in December to oversee OpenAI’s global revenue strategy across enterprise and customer success; she previously spent two years as CEO of Slack, owned by Salesforce, and before that 14 years at Salesforce itself.

The exit also lands amid a shift in how OpenAI treats employee equity. In April of last year, the same month Simo joined, OpenAI shortened its vesting cliff — the waiting period before new hires’ stock grants begin vesting — from the industry-standard 12 months to six months; in December it eliminated the cliff altogether for new hires. Simo described the move as letting employees “take risks” without fear of losing equity if let go early, part of an aggressive push to retain staff: OpenAI was projected to spend $6 billion on stock-based compensation in 2025. None of the exits appear tied to compensation.

Why it matters

Simo’s exit leaves Altman searching for a successor right as OpenAI eyes a possible IPO, at a moment when she had been seen as a likely candidate to take on more responsibility once the company went public — a leadership vacuum with no clear internal answer yet.