Meet Fidji Simo, OpenAI's latest top hire, who rose from a small French fishing village to the heart of Silicon Valley

For 39-year-old Fidji Simo, joining OpenAI arsenic its caller CEO of applications is but different section successful her storied vocation successful tech.

On Wednesday, OpenAI announced that it had hired Instacart's seat and CEO to articulation its C-suite. OpenAI's CEO, Sam Altman, wrote successful a blog station that Simo is "uniquely qualified" for the relation and volition study to him directly.

Altman said Simo "has already contributed a large woody to our company" since she joined OpenAI's committee successful March 2024. She is expected to articulation OpenAI's enactment squad aboriginal this twelvemonth aft she begins her "transition from her relation astatine Instacart implicit the adjacent fewer months."

The hiring of Simo, who spent overmuch of her vocation astatine Meta, has been interpreted by immoderate radical successful the tech manufacture that OpenAI is superior astir gathering a societal network. The Verge reported past period that OpenAI was successful the aboriginal stages of building an X-like product.

"It looks similar they privation to spell aft Facebook, aft each user mobile app that is palmy due to the fact that they tin and due to the fact that she has the inheritance to bash it," Julien Codorniou, a spouse astatine 20VC who worked alongside Simo astatine Facebook, told Business Insider. "It's a precise large awesome to the competition, to the market, and to the users."

Simo did not respond to a petition for remark from BI. OpenAI referred BI to Altman's blog station connected Simo's hiring.

'The unit comes earlier you, always'

Simo's communicative began successful Sète, the French sportfishing larboard municipality wherever she grew up.

"My family, each the men successful my family, whether it's my dad, my grandpa, large grandpa, and each my uncles were fishermen and 1 of them, my uncle became a food monger, aft you know, stopping fishing," Simo told Bloomberg successful an interrogation that aired successful November.

Simo started her firm vocation astatine eBay arsenic a strategy manager successful 2007, aft graduating from HEC Paris, 1 of France's apical concern schools.

The French-American joined Meta, past known arsenic Facebook, successful 2011.

Simo's emergence astatine Facebook was meteoric. Even her occupation exertion was remarkable. She applied for a selling communications relation — an country successful which she had nary erstwhile experience, but she was determined to springiness it a changeable regardless.

In a 2021 interrogation connected "The Twenty Minute VC" podcast, she recalled however she spent an full Thanksgiving play inventing a caller merchandise called "Facebook Stores," and recorded a webinar and produced selling materials to beforehand it. The presumption helped her get the Facebook role, but Simo said the hiring manager aboriginal laughed that she would ne'er person been considered conscionable connected her erstwhile acquisition alone. (Facebook aboriginal launched a precise akin initiative, called Shops.)

Simo aboriginal switched from selling to merchandise — different relation wherever she had nary anterior acquisition — and worked connected immoderate of the astir influential merchandise launches astatine Facebook. She was enactment successful complaint of monetizing mobile soon aft its 2012 IPO, astatine a clip erstwhile determination were concerns astir whether the institution could ever marque a palmy mobile business. She led the launches of video products similar Facebook Live and Facebook Watch and yet roseate to pb the Facebook app.

"I deliberation a batch of my vocation took disconnected astir moments wherever I made bets different radical didn't deliberation were evident bets," Simo said connected the "Twenty Minute VC" podcast interview.

Simo became fashionable among coworkers and concern partners alike. Dominique Delport, who sat connected Facebook's lawsuit assembly for 8 years erstwhile helium was managing manager astatine the French advertizing elephantine Havas Group, told BI that "openness" is simply a large portion of Simo's enactment philosophy.

"Big Tech sometimes has an representation of arrogance — and Facebook has been done immoderate phases — and I deliberation she was among the ones who helped alteration the cognition among the advertizing community," Delport said.

Simo joined Instacart's committee successful January 2021 and became its CEO successful August 2021.

Simo said successful her interrogation with Bloomberg that her puerility increasing up successful a sportfishing colony influenced her vocation choices.

"I deliberation it was incredibly peculiar due to the fact that determination is simply a trade and a respect that fishermen have. It's interesting, successful Silicon Valley, the radical who are astir respected are similar tech people, whereas here, the radical who are astir respected are the radical who provender the town," Simo said.

"So successful a way, becoming CEO of Instacart is benignant of bridging these 2 things for me, wherever I emotion tech but I ever had a passionateness for feeding people, and truthful it's a truly peculiar happening to beryllium capable to span the two," Simo added.

In a illustration published by Sequoia successful February 2024, Simo said her enactment benignant was shaped by her begetter and grandfather, who were some vessel captains.

"The unit comes earlier you, always," Simo said of their enactment ethos.

Simo is besides a passionate artist. A sculptor and painter, she antecedently served connected the boards of Cirque du Soleil and the L.A. Dance Project.

"You ever request to enactment creativity astatine the halfway of everything you do," she said connected the "Twenty Minute VC podcast."

Leaving Instacart

Simo's exit comes successful the aforesaid week Instacart reported its champion quarterly bid maturation successful much than 2 years. It besides forecast affirmative maturation for the 2nd quarter, bucking the inclination of a bleak retail sector.

Rachel Wolff, an expert astatine EMARKETER, a BI sister company, said the upbeat net showed "how successfully the institution has positioned its work arsenic a necessity for galore households."

In a missive to Instacart employees connected Wednesday evening, Simo said it was an "incredibly hard decision" for her to permission the company.

Simo said her determination was partially driven by her passionateness for AI and its "potential to cure diseases," which made OpenAI a hard accidental to walk up. Simo is presently the president of the Metrodora Institute, a for-profit healthcare session that focuses connected treating analyzable neuroimmune diseases.

While she volition stay CEO of Instacart portion the institution searches for a successor, Simo is preparing her adjacent chapter. Simo has antecedently said her favourite publication is "The Night Circus," a phantasy caller astir 2 magicians preparing to instrumentality each different connected successful a deadly duel. Now moving for Sam Altman, Simo is acceptable to spell into conflict with her erstwhile mentor, Mark Zuckerberg, arsenic OpenAI bids to predominate the satellite of apps.

"For that job, she's perfectly perfect," said Codorniou. "She has thing precise peculiar — she's 1 successful a billion."