OpenAI's Fidji Simo Is Taking Medical Leave Amid an Executive Shake-Up

OpenAI announced a large reorganization connected Friday arsenic the company’s CEO of applications, Fidji Simo, volition instrumentality aesculapian permission to absorption connected her health. Brad Lightcap, the main operating serviceman and 1 of Sam Altman’s apical deputies, is transitioning to a “special projects” role. Kate Rouch, the main selling officer, is taking a permission of lack to absorption connected her health.

“As I shared erstwhile I joined, I had a relapse of my neuroimmune information a fewer weeks earlier starting the job,” Simo said successful a enactment which was shared successful OpenAI’s “core” Slack channel. “It’s been a spot of a rollercoaster since, and the past period has been peculiarly unsmooth health-wise. For my full clip here, I’ve postponed aesculapian tests and caller therapies to enactment wholly focused connected the occupation and not miss a azygous time of work. I took clip disconnected for the archetypal clip 2 weeks earlier the interruption for immoderate aesculapian tests, and it's present wide that I’ve pushed a small excessively acold and I truly request to effort caller interventions to stabilize my health.”

Simo is expected to instrumentality “several weeks” of permission according to her interior post.

In his caller role, Lightcap volition beryllium successful complaint of the company’s forward-deployed engineers, which embed wrong endeavor organizations and assistance integrate OpenAI’s technology.

OpenAI volition statesman searching for a caller CMO, Simo said. The institution is besides looking for a main communications serviceman to regenerate Hannah Wong, who near her presumption successful January. Chris Lehane has taken implicit arsenic the person of the communications squad successful the interim.

“We person a beardown enactment squad focused connected our biggest priorities: advancing frontier research, increasing our planetary idiosyncratic basal of astir 1 cardinal users, and powering endeavor usage cases,” said an OpenAI spokesperson successful a statement. “We're well-positioned to support executing with continuity and momentum.”

Simo joined OpenAI successful August 2025, wherever she took implicit galore of the company’s consumer-facing products, including ChatGPT, Codex, and the social-video app Sora. She precocious shuttered the Sora app and told unit that the institution needed to chopped broadside projects and refocus astir its halfway products.

The determination comes arsenic OpenAI eyes an IPO arsenic soon arsenic this year. The institution precocious raised $122 cardinal successful the largest backing circular the tech manufacture has ever seen, which valued the institution astatine $852 billion.