In the case of OpenAI the structure couldn’t be weirder – a nonprofit running a for-profit organization that has become a public benefit corporation – now has two CEOs. There is Sam Altman, the CEO of the entire company, who manages research and calculations. And as of this summer, Fidji Simo, former Instacart CEO, is running everything else.
Since taking over as CEO of Applications in August, Simo hasn’t been seen much at OpenAI’s San Francisco office. But her presence is felt at every level of the company — especially because she leads ChatGPT and essentially every function that could make OpenAI money. Simo is struggling with a recurrence of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), which makes her prone to fainting when standing for long periods of time. For now, he works from home in Los Angeles and uses Slack. Very.
“Being there from 8 a.m. to midnight every day, responding within five minutes, people feel like I’m there and that they can contact me immediately, that I’m on the phone within five minutes,” he tells me. Employees confirm this is true. OpenAI’s notable Slack-based culture can be overwhelming for modern employees. But apparently not for Simo. Employees say she is often seen entering channels and threads, sharing her thoughts and asking questions.
Simo joined the team during a messy time for OpenAI, which is expanding in almost every direction. There are sovereign AI partnerships, modern model releases, retail partnerships, multi-billion dollar compute deals, a proprietary chip, a mystery hardware product – and of course ChatGPT. “We’re not fighting for coverage,” says Simo. “We are fighting for a smaller scope.”
Outside of Silicon Valley, Simo’s hiring came as a surprise. For those in the know, it was less of a shock. Originally from Sète, a compact fishing town in the south of France, Simo rose to fame running Meta’s Facebook app before taking the top job at Instacart in 2021. Two years later, the food startup went public. At Valley, she is known as a product visionary, known for scaling consumer applications around the world.
Simo’s role at OpenAI is largely to do the same – transforming the company’s research breakthroughs into money-making, crucial consumer products. It faces stunning competition from tech giants such as Google and Meta, as well as AI startups founded by OpenAI graduates including Thinking Machines Lab, Anthropic and Periodic Labs. “What keeps me up at night is that the intelligence of our models far outweighs the number of users they use,” says Simo. “I see my job as filling that gap.”
Since her arrival, Simo has overseen the launch of Pulse, a product that connects to users’ calendars and provides them with personalized information based on their schedule, chat history and opinions; created a job platform to enable people to become AI certified and seek positions that leverage their skills; and redoubled efforts to improve ChatGPT’s response to people suffering from acute mental health crises. Sources say it will ultimately decide how ads are displayed on ChatGPT’s free tier.