Meet Fidji Simo.
Sam Altman recently announced her as the CEO of OpenAI Applications.
Yes, that includes ChatGPT and all the apps built around it.
Which means:
While still being the CEO of OpenAI, he’ll be able to focus on compute, research, and safety.
She’ll run the actual product used by 100 million+ people every week.
And here’s where it gets spicy:
This isn’t just a new division head.
This is probably OpenAI naming its #2.
And maybe… its next CEO.
So who is she?
Fidji’s story is solid:
→ Grew up in a small French fishing town
→ Finished high school by 16
→ Studied at HEC Paris, then UCLA
→ Spent 10 years at Meta, led product for the core Facebook app
→ Took over as Instacart CEO and took it public
→ Now joins OpenAI to lead the most widely adopted AI product in the world.
She’s gone from groceries to generative AI.
And she’s not here to play.
Why does this matter?
Because OpenAI is clearly entering its next phase.
→ Phase 1 was research and shock value
→ Phase 2 is productisation and mass adoption
→ And Fidji is being brought in to build and scale the next layer
She’s not a LinkedIn poster.
Not a podcast guest every week.
Just a quiet, consistent operator who builds billion-dollar things.
Excited to see where this goes.
Because ChatGPT isn’t just a chatbot anymore. It’s an operating system for the next internet.
Thoughts?
This post was originally shared by on Linkedin.