Instacart’s CEO is about to take the reins of a big chunk of OpenAI

The CEO of Instacact, Fiji Simo, will start his new role as an OpenAi framework on August 18, leading at least a third of the company and reporting directly to the CEO of Openai, Sam Altman. Simo will be “CEO of applications”, responsible for setting up and developing technology use cases.

This is a whole new role, revealed for the first time as part of the Altman’s reorganization announcement in May. At the time, Altman wrote that he would always supervise what he called the three pillars of Openai – Research, Calculation and Applications – but that he would start to focus more on research and the calculation of things, including security systems. Simo, on the other hand, will be more focused on products and growth.

In a memo to the employees, who was also published on the Openai blog, Simo wrote that it was very excited for health breakage led by AI. She has also written a lot about her belief in the ability of AI to help with career coaching and life, creative expression, time, second medical opinions, withdrawal time and personalized tutoring.

Simo wrote that the main technological trends can either extend access to power or “focus more wealth and power in the hands of a few – generally people who already have money, references and connections”. She has written that the choices of the business and the AI are now “shaped if the future transformation leads to greater empowerment for all, or to a greater concentration of wealth and power for a few.”

Simo joined the Board of Directors of Openai in March 2024. His appointment came at the same time as CEO Sam Altman regained his headquarters at the Commission, after an internal investigation into the advance as evidence.

The OPENAI Application Department “brings together a group of existing sales and operational teams responsible for how our research is reaching and benefiting the world,” wrote Altman in May, adding that the role of SIMO will focus on “activation of our” traditional “functions to evolve when we enter a future phase of growth”.

Correction: A previous version of this story has missed Simo the old CEO of Instacart. Simo will remain as CEO in the company’s revenues in early August, then will go to its role in Openai.