OpenAI power consolidates under co-founder Greg Brockman ahead of IPO

OpenAI has a new second-in-command.

The company’s president, Greg Brockman, officially became responsible for OpenAI’s most important and profitable projects after Fidji Simo left his position due to chronic illness on Thursday.

Simo, old Meta manager and former CEO InstacartHe served as OpenAI’s chief product and business officer for nearly a year, focusing on the company’s roadmap and helping it grow. Simo, who was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) in 2019, took medical leave in April and said he would switch to a part-time consultant on Thursday.

OpenAI co-founder Brockman has taken over product responsibilities in Simo’s absence and will continue to lead the effort, according to a source familiar with the company’s plans who asked not to be identified for privacy reasons. Brockman will oversee OpenAI’s ChatGPT product business, as well as its go-to-market teams, enterprise teams and computing initiatives, the source said.

“I am deeply grateful for everything Fidji has done to advance OpenAI and our mission, and for having the opportunity to work with him over the past several years,” Brockman wrote. a post on x on Friday.

Reporting directly to CEO Sam Altman, Brockman is under pressure to generate revenue and justify OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation, especially as the company prepares for what is expected to be a historic IPO. OpenAI filed its prospectus confidentially with regulators in June, but the company has not announced when it plans to debut and is reportedly delaying it until next year.

OpenAI also faces increasingly stiff competition from rivals including Anthropic. Google and Elon Musk SpaceXalong with a number of cheaper open-weight models, primarily from China.

ChatGPT’s market share fell below 50% for the first time in March. Sensor Towerand OpenAI is aggressively pushing its AI coding assistant Codex in a bid to gain more users.

OpenAI’s chief financial officer, Sarah Friar, and the company’s chief strategy officer, Jason Kwon, will report to Altman. A person familiar said the company does not plan to hire anyone to replace Simo.

Brockman founded OpenAI in 2015 with a group of people including Altman and Musk. He and Altman were close allies, and when Altman was briefly removed from his role as CEO in 2023, Brockman left the company in solidarity. Both men rejoined OpenAI days later.

“Greg and I are partners in running this company,” Altman wrote. a blog post In that case. “We never quite figured out how to communicate this on the org chart, but we will.”

Both were at the center of a high-profile legal fight earlier this year. Musk sued Brockman, Altman, and OpenAI, claiming they reneged on commitments to keep the AI ​​lab a nonprofit.

In federal court in Oakland, California, in May, Brockman testified about the startup’s early years and retracted Musk’s account of events. He was fuming about his personal financial goals, his understanding of OpenAI’s structure, and Musk’s involvement in the company.

Musk lost the case after an advisory jury said he waited too long to sue, a decision quickly accepted by a federal judge.

“I think the technology we developed is transformative,” Brockman said from the witness stand. “This will be the most important technological change in human history.”

WRISTWATCH: OpenAI executive Fidji Simo resigns