Fidji Simo

When OpenAI CEO Sam Altman created the role of CEO of applications in May 2025, he effectively split the company he cofounded in two, putting research and compute on one side, and everything that touches the rest of the world on the other. To serve as his counterpart focused on how AI will integrate into our lives—and make money—he tapped Fidji Simo. Simo had been an early Facebook exec and was known for turning that company into an advertising machine; she was one of the first execs to name video as the future of social media and see its commerce potential via Facebook Marketplace. She reported directly to Mark Zuckerberg by the time she left. As CEO and board chair of Instacart, she delivered a long-delayed tech IPO in a very difficult market. At OpenAI, Simo has moved with the velocity her new role demands, advancing rapidly: Today, her title is CEO, AGI deployment, reflecting the expansive nature of her role. Multiple divisions, from product development and engineering to sales and marketing, report to her. Although she had to take medical leave in spring 2026, her impact on the tech company remains undiminished. She leads nearly two-thirds of OpenAI employees, overseeing the sprawling work of turning the company's breakthrough research into products, revenue streams, and real-world infrastructure for deploying AI at scale. She has driven consequential decisions from the forthcoming creation of a desktop AI "super app" to a doubling down on coding agent Codex to the surprise acquisition of tech news show TBPN, which signaled that the company sees media and cultural influence as part of the race to shape how AI reaches the mainstream.