OpenAI Hires Instacart Chief Fidji Simo to Run Business and Operations

OpenAI said late Wednesday that it hired Fidji Simo, the chief executive of Instacart, to take on a new role running the artificial intelligence company’s business and operations teams.

In a blog post, Sam Altman, OpenAI’s chief executive, said he would remain in charge as the head of the company. But Ms. Simo’s appointment as chief executive of applications would free him up to focus on other parts of the organization, including research, computing and safety systems, he said.

“We have become a global product company serving hundreds of millions of users worldwide and growing very quickly,” Mr. Altman said in the blog post. He added that OpenAI had also become an “infrastructure company” that delivered artificial intelligence tools at scale.

“Each of these is a massive effort that could be its own large company,” he wrote. “Bringing on exceptional leaders is a key part of doing that well.”

Ms. Simo, a member of OpenAI’s board, will oversee sales, marketing and finance. She will report to Mr. Altman.

OpenAI, which ignited a frenzy over A.I. with its ChatGPT chatbot, has grown rapidly and juggled multiple initiatives — sometimes unsuccessfully. The San Francisco company has steadily released new A.I. models and products, including systems that can “reason.” In March, it completed a $40 billion fund-raising deal, led by the Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, that valued it at $300 billion and made it one of the most valuable private companies in the world.

But OpenAI, which was set up as a nonprofit, has struggled to adopt a new corporate structure. As the commercial appeal of artificial intelligence has grown, the company had tried to remove itself from control by the nonprofit. That attracted scrutiny from critics such as Elon Musk, an OpenAI founder who sued the company and accused it of putting profit ahead of A.I. safety. The attorneys general of California and Delaware also scrutinized the restructuring.

On Monday, OpenAI backtracked on the plan and said it would allow the nonprofit to retain its grip on the company.

(The New York Times has sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, accusing them of copyright infringement regarding news content related to A.I. systems. OpenAI and Microsoft have denied those claims.)

In a statement late Wednesday, Ms. Simo said that OpenAI “has the potential of accelerating human potential at a pace never seen before and I am deeply committed to shaping these applications toward the public good.”

She added in a memo to Instacart employees that she had a “passion for A.I. and in particular for the potential it has to cure diseases” and that “the ability to lead such an important part of our collective future was a hard opportunity to pass up.”

Ms. Simo will remain at Instacart for the next few months as the company names a successor, a role she said would be filled by a member of Instacart’s management team. She will also remain on the company’s board as its chairperson.

“Today’s announcement is not a reflection of any changes in our business or operations,” Instacart said in a statement.