OpenAI exec Fidji Simo says she will step down and transition to part-time advisor

Simo was diagnosed with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome, or POTS, in 2019, and said she’s been spending “countless hours in doctors’ offices, dealing with symptoms, treatments, insurance, uncertainty, and all the invisible work that comes with being a patient.”

She stepped away from OpenAI in April for a medical leave. OpenAI President Greg Brockman took over product responsibilities in Simo’s absence.

“When I went on leave, many people told me I was courageous for prioritizing my health,” Simo wrote in a post on X on Thursday. “The truth is that I am only making this decision now because I failed to make it many times before.”

OpenAI hired Simo in May of 2025. She previously served as CEO of Instacart, where she took the company public and helped to break the longest tech IPO drought in three decades. She also spent more than a decade in leadership roles at Meta, acting as the head of Facebook from 2019 until 2021.

“Two years after I got sick, Facebook offered me the opportunity to take a full year of medical leave. I didn’t even pause to consider it. I immediately said no,” Simo wrote on Thursday. She added that CEO Mark Zuckerberg “told me I should play the long game. I wish I had listened.”

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a post on X that he’s grateful for Simo’s contributions to the company, “and even grateful for her friendship and who she is as a person.”

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