Greg Brockman, president of OpenAI, arrives at a federal courthouse because the trial in Elon Musk’s lawsuit over OpenAI’s for-profit conversion continues, in Oakland, California, Might 6, 2026.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
There is a new second-in-command at OpenAI.
Greg Brockman, the corporate’s president, is formally answerable for OpenAI’s most essential and worthwhile tasks after Fidji Simo stepped down from her position on Thursday attributable to power sickness.
Simo, a former Meta govt and ex-CEO of Instacart, served as OpenAI’s product and enterprise chief for a few yr, focusing the corporate’s highway map and serving to it scale. Simo, who was recognized with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, in 2019, took a medical depart in April, and stated Thursday that she would transition to a place as a part-time advisor.
Brockman, an OpenAI co-founder, took over product duties throughout Simo’s absence, and can proceed to steer these efforts, based on a supply accustomed to the corporate’s plans who requested to not be named attributable to confidentiality. Brockman will oversee OpenAI’s ChatGPT product enterprise, in addition to its go-to-market groups, enterprise groups and compute initiatives, the individual stated.
“I’m deeply grateful for all Fidji has executed for OpenAI and to advance our mission, and for the chance to have labored alongside her for the previous few years,” Brockman wrote in a submit on X on Friday.
Reporting on to CEO Sam Altman, Brockman is underneath stress to usher in income and justify OpenAI’s $852 billion valuation, particularly as the corporate gears up for what’s anticipated to be a historic IPO. OpenAI confidentially filed its prospectus with regulators in June, however the firm hasn’t disclosed when it plans to debut and is reportedly delaying till subsequent yr.
OpenAI can also be dealing with more and more stiff competitors from rivals, together with Anthropic, Google and Elon Musk’s SpaceX, together with a number of cheaper open-weight fashions primarily out of China.
ChatGPT’s market share fell under 50% for the primary time in March, based on a report from Sensor Tower, and OpenAI has been aggressively touting its AI coding assistant, Codex, in an effort to win over extra customers.
Sarah Friar, OpenAI’s finance chief, and Jason Kwon, the corporate’s technique chief, will report back to Altman. The corporate would not plan to rent anybody to exchange Simo, the individual acquainted stated.
Brockman co-founded OpenAI alongside Altman and a bunch of others, together with Musk, in 2015. He and Altman have been shut allies, and when Altman was briefly ousted from his position as CEO in 2023, Brockman stop the corporate in solidarity. Each males rejoined OpenAI days later.
“Greg and I are companions in operating this firm,” Altman wrote in a weblog submit on the time. “We’ve got by no means fairly discovered how you can talk that on the org chart, however we’ll.”
They have been additionally each on the heart of a high-profile authorized brawl earlier this yr. Musk sued Brockman, Altman and OpenAI, alleging they went again on commitments they made to maintain the the AI lab a nonprofit.
In federal court docket in Oakland, California, in Might, Brockman testified concerning the startup’s early years and pushed again on Musk’s account of occasions. He was grilled about his private monetary ambitions, his understanding of OpenAI’s construction and Musk’s involvement on the firm.
Musk finally misplaced the case after an advisory jury stated he waited too lengthy to sue, a verdict that was instantly adopted by a federal decide.
“I feel the tech we’re creating is transformative,” Brockman stated from the witness stand. “That is going to be a very powerful technological shift in human historical past.”
WATCH: OpenAI exec Fidji Simo steps down
