Fidji Simo steps down from OpenAI's no. 2 role after extended medical leave

Fidji Simo, OpenAI's chief executive of applications who had more recently taken on the title of AGI chief, is stepping down from her full-time role at the company, transitioning instead to what she described as a part-time advisory position. She announced the move herself on social media.

Simo's departure follows an extended medical leave that began in April, when she said she would need several weeks away from full-time duties to manage a neuroimmune condition. That leave ultimately stretched on far longer than originally anticipated, the company said.

Her exit adds to a string of high-level departures and role changes at OpenAI in recent months. Around the same period Simo first went on leave, chief operating officer Brad Lightcap also stepped back from his role to focus on what the company described as "special projects," while chief marketing officer Kate Rouch stepped down to focus on her own health.

Rouch had said at the time she intended to return in a more narrowly scoped role once her health allowed, suggesting OpenAI's leadership bench has been unusually fluid over the past several months even as the company pushes ahead with an aggressive product and expansion roadmap.

Simo had been widely viewed as one of the most senior operational leaders at OpenAI outside of chief executive Sam Altman, overseeing the applications side of the business, including consumer-facing products, as the company built out its AGI-focused initiatives under a separate leadership title she had taken on earlier this year.

The leadership vacuum arrives at a sensitive moment for OpenAI. The company is weighing a potential initial public offering, a step that would typically require investors to have confidence in a stable, well-defined executive team, and is simultaneously racing to catch up with rival Anthropic in the enterprise software market.

OpenAI has not named a permanent successor to fill Simo's operational responsibilities, and it remains unclear how her remaining duties will be redistributed among the company's existing leadership team in the near term.

The departure comes during an otherwise eventful stretch for OpenAI, which this week also rolled out its new GPT-5.6 model family following a period of regulatory scrutiny, and unveiled a new product called ChatGPT Work aimed at bringing agentic capabilities to non-technical office workers.

Analysts covering the company say leadership stability will likely become a bigger point of scrutiny the closer OpenAI moves toward any public listing, since investors typically weigh management continuity heavily when assessing a company's readiness for public markets.

For now, Simo says she plans to remain involved with OpenAI in an advisory capacity, though the company has not detailed what that role will specifically involve or how much time she is expected to dedicate to it going forward.