OpenAI’s Fidji Simo steps down due to chronic illness, becomes advisor

Fidji Simo, OpenAI’s product and business chief, said Thursday. announced He is leaving his position at the AI ​​company to focus on recovery after a “serious exacerbation of a chronic disease.”

Simo was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS, in 2019 and said he “spent countless hours in doctors’ offices dealing with symptoms, treatments, insurance, uncertainty, and all the invisible business that comes with being sick.”

He left OpenAI for medical leave in April. OpenAI President Greg Brockman took over product responsibilities in Simo’s absence.

“When I went on leave, many people told me that I was brave in prioritizing my health,” Simo said. Publish on X on Thursday. “The truth is I’m making this decision now because I haven’t been able to do this many times before.”

Simo said he will move to a part-time consultant position at OpenAI.

OpenAI hired Simo in May 2025 to lead the company’s applications business. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a note at the time that Simo “will focus on ensuring the scale of our ‘traditional’ company functions as we enter the next phase of growth.”

Last month, OpenAI filed confidentially for an IPO, a week after rival Anthropic did the same. However, the company has not provided a timeline for a public launch and is reportedly delaying those plans until at least next year.

Simo previously served as CEO Instacarttook the company public and helped break the longest technology IPO drought in three decades. He also served in leadership roles at Meta for more than a decade and served as president of Facebook from 2019 to 2021.

“Two years after I got sick, Facebook offered me the opportunity to take a year’s medical leave. I didn’t even stop to think about it. I immediately said no,” Simo wrote on Thursday. He added that CEO Mark Zuckerberg “told me I had to play the long game. I wish I had listened.”

Altman said a post on x He said he was grateful for Simo’s contributions to the company and was even “grateful for his friendship and personality.”

WRISTWATCH: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on whether the company will go public this year: ‘I don’t know’