Fidji Simo, the CEO and chair of Instacart.
OpenAI announced on Wednesday that Fidji Simo, the chair and CEO of Instacart, will be joining the ChatGPT-maker as CEO of Applications later this year.Joel Saget/AFP via Getty Images

  • Sam Altman said he has hired Fidji Simo, Instacart’s chair and CEO, as his new CEO of applications.

  • Altman said he will remain as CEO, and Simo will start work at the ChatGPT maker later this year.

  • Simo has “contributed a great deal” to OpenAI since she joined its board in March 2024, Altman said.

Fidji Simo, the CEO and chair of Instacart, will join OpenAI as its new CEO of applications, Sam Altman said on Thursday.

“I’ll remain CEO of OpenAI, but in this new configuration I’ll be able to increase my focus on research, compute, and safety,” Altman wrote in an X post announcing Simo’s hiring on Thursday morning.

Altman announced Simo’s hiring in a message to employees on Wednesday. OpenAI published Altman’s message as a blog post on the same day.

“Applications brings together a group of existing 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 his message to employees.

Altman said in his message that Simo “has already contributed a great deal to our company” since joining OpenAI’s board in March 2024. He added that Simo will start work at OpenAI later this year and “will transition from her role at Instacart over the next few months.”

In her new role, Simo will report directly to Altman.

“Fidji is exceptional; we have worked together on OpenAI for the past year and I have observed her deep commitment to our mission,” Altman wrote on X.

“I cannot imagine a better new team member to help us scale the next 10x (or 100x, let’s see),” Altman added.

When approached for comment, a spokesperson for OpenAI referred Business Insider to its blog post.

Simo started her career at eBay before moving to Meta, where she oversaw Facebook’s app and advertising products.

She joined Instacart as a board member in January 2021 and became its CEO in August 2021.

On Thursday, Simo wrote in an X post that she will continue to be Instacart’s CEO for the next few months and will still chair its board after she joins OpenAI.