Fidji Simo, responsible for the entire application business at OpenAI, is leaving her full-time position and will now only work as a part-time consultant for the company. The trigger is a relapse of her chronic circulatory disease POTS, for which she has been on medical leave since April 2026. The product responsibility will be taken over by OpenAI President Greg Brockman, who had already been handling the tasks on an interim basis during her absence.
Simo explains withdrawal with long illness course
Simo announced her withdrawal on Thursday in an internal message to the staff, as Axios reports. She is making the decision only now because she had not made it “many times before,” according to the quoted letter. The path to recovery has been significantly longer and more complicated than she initially assumed.
The cause is a relapse of postural tachycardia syndrome (POTS), a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that can lead to rapid heartbeat, dizziness, and exhaustion when standing up. The condition was diagnosed in Simo in 2019, several years before her transition to OpenAI. In April 2026, she took a medical leave and initially handed over her operational tasks on an interim basis. A specific return date to the full-time role has remained open since then, although OpenAI initially assumed an interim representation arrangement. With the transition to the part-time consultant role, Simo is now drawing a line under her return to her previous operational function but remains with the company in a reduced capacity.
Brockman takes over leadership, Altman reacts publicly
The tasks from Simo’s previous portfolio are being distributed among several executives. OpenAI President Greg Brockman, who had already been handling product responsibility on an interim basis since Simo’s leave in April, is now taking it over permanently. CFO Sarah Friar and Chief of Staff Jason Kwon are taking on additional parts of her previous responsibilities. Sales Chief Denise Dresser will now report directly to Brockman instead of Simo. Simo herself will remain with the company as a board member, which she has been since 2024.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman commented on the withdrawal on the platform X with visible dismay: He is “very sad about it and very grateful” for everything Simo has done for OpenAI. Simo joined OpenAI in May 2025 as the head of the application business after previously leading the IPO of Instacart and working for more than a decade at Meta. Most recently, her responsibilities also included the decision to shut down the standalone browser Atlas just nine months after its launch and to integrate its features into the ChatGPT desktop app.
It remains open who will take over Simo’s former role as head of the application business in the long term and whether Altman is looking internally or externally for a permanent successor. For a company reportedly preparing for an IPO, securing the second tier of leadership is no trivial matter. How long Brockman will fill the dual role of president and product head will likely become clear in the coming months.
