Instacart CEO Fidji Simo to join OpenAI in new leadership role

Instacart CEO Fidji Simo is joining OpenAI as the company's chief of applications, the ChatGPT maker said on Thursday.

Altman will remain the CEO of OpenAI and will continue to directly oversee all pillars of OpenAI, including compute and applications, the firm said.

Simo will transition from her role at Instacart over the next few months and join OpenAI later this year.

“[S]o excited that @fidjissimo is joining openai in a new role: ceo of applications, reporting to me. 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,” posted Altman on X on Thursday (May 8, 2025).

Instacart said that the company's new CEO will be announced soon and that Simo will also remain Chair of the Instacart Board to support the new CEO.

The Information first reported the development and said that OpenAI was in talks with a senior tech executive to oversee some of the company's divisions.