Open AI No. 2 Exec at OpenAI Fidji Simo is leaving the company

https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/09/fidji-simo-steps-down-from-openais-no-2-role/

by jeffhwang • 13 days ago

5 2 13 days ago

"Debates that lose sight of the product quality, or lose sight of the product revenue? Given that Simo rose to prominence at Facebook, eventually running the Facebook blue app, and considering the product quality vs. product revenue balance of that app, I think we know the answer.

This whole dumb “superapp” idea that leaked last week sounds exactly like the sort of thing someone who ran the Facebook app would think is a good idea. The difference, I expect, is that Facebook is free to let product quality (and experience quality) fall by the wayside because their social platforms have such powerful network effects. People stay on Facebook and Instagram even as the experiences worsen because everyone they know is also still on those apps. There’s no network effect like that for ChatGPT. Claude is already rising to near-equal status in popularity, and Gemini isn’t far behind, and Simo hasn’t even started enshittifying ChatGPT yet. People will just switch."

https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/03/31/bi-fidji-simo

650• 13 days ago

People are positing she is saving face by claiming medical issues. She doesn’t seem to provide much value, whether its based on feedback from employees where she’s worked or the public interviews she’s done.

Open AI No. 2 Exec at OpenAI Fidji Simo is leaving the company

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