The CEO of OpenAI Fidji Simo, in charge of AGI implementation, will leave her full-time position at the company and become a part-time consultant. The move comes after Simo took a month-long medical leave due to a worsening neuroimmune condition.

“Three months ago, I had to take medical leave after a serious exacerbation of a chronic illness I’ve lived with for seven years,” Simo wrote in a Thursday post on

Simo joined OpenAI’s board of directors in March 2024. The following year, CEO Sam Altman hired her to take charge of the business and product organizations so he could focus on research and building the company’s data center. Previously, Simo was CEO of Instacart and head of the Facebook app at Meta.

Shortly before starting at OpenAI, Simo experienced a major health setback. She was diagnosed with postural tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, in 2019. “During my entire time here, I postponed medical tests and new therapies to stay fully focused on work and not miss a single day of work,” she told OpenAI staff in a memo in April, announcing her temporary departure. “It is now clear that I have gone too far and I really need to try new interventions to stabilize my health.”

The news of Simo’s medical leave came amid a broader executive restructuring that saw Brad Lightcap, former COO of OpenAI, moved into a role overseeing special projects. OpenAI President and Co-Founder Greg Brockman took charge of OpenAI’s product strategy. In the months since Simo retired from OpenAI, the company has further reorganized its product teams, positioning Thibault Sottiaux as head of the company’s core products, including ChatGPT.

OpenAI is trying to focus on a few core products ahead of a planned initial public offering, which is now expected to occur in 2027. The company is reportedly targeting a $1 trillion valuation. As part of this focus strategy, OpenAI has merged teams working on ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered browser, and its AI encoding agent to create a “super app.” The company has also closed distant bets such as Sora.

Earlier Thursday, OpenAI unveiled the biggest product update for ChatGPT since its launch. The company launched an AI agent in ChatGPT that can act on users’ behalf, moving local files and writing code, and redesigned the look of its desktop app. With the updated product, OpenAI hopes to provide ChatGPT users with some features that were previously limited to Codex, such as the ability to create custom software projects with AI.