OpenAI is undergoing yet another significant executive reshuffle, officially placing co-founder and president Greg Brockman at the helm of its product strategy. This move comes just weeks after Fidji Simo, the company's CEO of AGI Deployment, took a medical leave of absence. According to a report by Wired, the reorganization is part of a plan to simplify the company's lineup and merge its two most powerful tools, ChatGPT and the coding agent Codex, into a single, unified experience.
New Command Structure Confirmed by Memo
Greg Brockman, who was already managing OpenAI's AI infrastructure, had been overseeing products on an interim basis during Simo's absence. OpenAI confirmed on Friday (May 16) that this arrangement is now permanent. In a memo to staff, seen by Wired, Brockman explained that the company is consolidating product efforts to execute with maximum focus toward the agentic future. He noted that OpenAI's various tools are naturally beginning to overlap, making it the perfect time to create one core product team.
“We’re consolidating our product efforts to execute with maximum focus toward the agentic future, to win across both consumer and enterprise,” Brockman said. By merging ChatGPT, Codex, and its developer API into one unit, OpenAI hopes to build “agents” – AI that can perform digital tasks on users’ behalf.
Leadership Changes and Promotions
Several other leaders are moving up as part of this shift. Thibault Sottiaux, formerly the head of Codex, will now lead the core product platform across all consumer and business surfaces. Nick Turley, who is credited with growing ChatGPT to 900 million weekly active users, will transition to a new role focused on revamping OpenAI's enterprise (business) products.
Senior Researchers Depart
This shakeup is the latest in a string of high-profile departures and changes at the AI company. Last month, several key executives left the company entirely, including the heads of the Sora video project and the AI workspace for scientists. Meanwhile, Simo went on medical leave but reportedly worked directly with Brockman to finalize this new strategy. At the same time, OpenAI is facing intense pressure from rivals like Anthropic and Google, and the company is reportedly tidying up its product offerings ahead of a potential Initial Public Offering (IPO) later this year.
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