Fidji Simo

Fidji Simo
Born	5 10, 1985
Birthplace	Sète, France
Nationality	French, American
Occupation	CEO of Applications at OpenAI
Known for	CEO of Applications at OpenAI, former CEO of Instacart, former Head of the Facebook app, co-founder of the Metrodora Institute
Education	HEC Paris UCLA Anderson School of Management
Children	1

Fidji Simo (born 5 October 1985) is a French-American business executive who serves as the CEO of Applications at OpenAI, a role she assumed in 2025. Before joining OpenAI, Simo spent a decade at Facebook (now Meta), where she rose to become the head of the Facebook app, overseeing one of the world's largest social media platforms and contributing to the company's multibillion-dollar advertising business. She subsequently served as CEO of Instacart from 2021 to 2025, guiding the grocery delivery company through its initial public offering and a period of significant technological transformation. Outside of her corporate career, Simo co-founded the Metrodora Institute, a health clinic and research institute focused on neuroimmune diseases, and serves as president of the Metrodora Foundation. She sits on the boards of directors of Instacart and Shopify. Named to TimeTemplate:'s 100 Most Influential People in AI in 2025 and FortuneTemplate:'s Most Powerful Women list, Simo has become one of the most prominent executives in the technology industry, known for her work at the intersection of consumer technology, artificial intelligence, and healthcare innovation.

Early Life

Fidji Simo was born on 5 October 1985 in Sète, a port city on the Mediterranean coast in southern France. She grew up in France before pursuing higher education and eventually relocating to the United States, where she built her career in the technology sector.

Details about Simo's family background and upbringing in Sète remain limited in public reporting. Her later career trajectory, however, reflects an early orientation toward business and technology. Simo's decision to pursue studies at one of France's most prestigious business schools, HEC Paris, and subsequently to obtain a graduate degree at UCLA Anderson School of Management in the United States, positioned her for a career in the American technology industry.

Her relocation from France to the United States was a pivotal step in her professional life. Moving to Silicon Valley, Simo entered the world of consumer technology at a time when social media platforms were experiencing rapid growth and transforming global communication, commerce, and media.

Education

Simo attended HEC Paris, one of France's leading grandes écoles and a top-ranked international business school. She subsequently earned a degree from the UCLA Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her educational background in business provided a foundation for the product management, strategy, and leadership roles she would later hold at Facebook, Instacart, and OpenAI.

Career

Facebook (2011–2021)

Simo joined Facebook (now Meta) and spent approximately a decade at the company, rising through the ranks to become one of its most senior executives. During her tenure, she played a central role in shaping the Facebook app's product strategy, particularly in areas related to video, news, advertising, and commerce.

Simo was instrumental in the development of Facebook's advertising business. According to Digiday, she helped Facebook build its advertising operation into a $55 billion business, contributing to the company's dominance in digital advertising. Her work encompassed the introduction of new ad formats, the expansion of video content on the platform, and the integration of e-commerce features into the Facebook app.

She eventually rose to the position of head of the Facebook app, a role that gave her responsibility for one of the world's most widely used applications, with billions of users globally. In this capacity, Simo oversaw the core product that generated the majority of Meta's revenue and served as the primary social networking experience for the company's massive user base.

Simo was recognized during her time at Facebook as an innovator in mobile technology and advertising. Adweek named her among mobile innovators shaping the future of advertising, and Fast Company included her on its Most Creative People list in 2017.

In 2021, Simo departed Facebook to take on the role of CEO at Instacart, marking a significant career transition from social media to the grocery delivery and technology sector.

Instacart (2021–2025)

In July 2021, Simo was appointed CEO of Instacart, the online grocery delivery and pickup platform. Her appointment came at a pivotal moment for the company, which had experienced substantial growth during the COVID-19 pandemic as consumers shifted toward online grocery shopping. Supermarket News reported that the CEO change signaled Instacart's readiness for its "next growth chapter."

Under Simo's leadership, Instacart pursued a strategy of technological expansion beyond its core grocery delivery service. The company invested in advertising technology, enterprise solutions for grocery retailers, and the integration of artificial intelligence into its platform. Simo oversaw the company's preparation for and execution of its initial public offering, a long-anticipated milestone for the company.

In 2022, Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta announced he would step down as chairman following the company's IPO, with Simo continuing as CEO to lead the company through its transition to a publicly traded entity.

During her tenure, Simo also expanded Instacart's board and strategic partnerships. She joined the board of directors at Shopify, the Canadian e-commerce company, representing a connection between two major players in digital commerce.

Simo was recognized for her leadership at Instacart. In 2023, she was named Best CEO for large companies by Comparably, a workplace culture platform. That same year, Fortune included her on its Most Powerful Women list.

Simo served as Instacart's CEO until 2025, when she departed to join OpenAI. She remained on Instacart's board of directors following her departure.

OpenAI (2025–present)

Board membership

Prior to joining OpenAI as an executive, Simo served on the company's board of directors. OpenAI announced new members to its board as part of a broader governance restructuring, and Simo was among those appointed. She subsequently stepped down from the board upon assuming her operational role at the company.

CEO of Applications

On May 7, 2025, OpenAI announced that Simo would join the company as CEO of Applications, a newly created role reporting directly to CEO Sam Altman. In the announcement, Altman stated that he would remain CEO of OpenAI and continue to directly oversee the company's overall strategy, while Simo would focus on the consumer-facing applications, most notably ChatGPT.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Simo and Altman had developed a working relationship built on shared management philosophies, including a mutual aversion to standing meetings. The hire was framed as part of OpenAI's broader effort to commercialize its technology and achieve profitability, with Simo tasked with expanding ChatGPT's utility and revenue potential.

In July 2025, prior to formally starting her role, Simo sent a memo to OpenAI staff outlining her vision for the company's applications. Wired described the memo as striking a "hyper-optimistic tone" about how AI would change the world.

In her role, Simo has focused on several strategic priorities for OpenAI's consumer products. According to Wired, her mission centers on making ChatGPT more useful for everyday tasks and expanding the ways users can pay for the service, with the goal of making the application "indispensable and lucrative."

Simo has also addressed product safety concerns in her role at OpenAI. Fortune reported that she oversaw the addition of parental controls to ChatGPT teen accounts and indicated that additional mental health safeguards were forthcoming. In the same report, Simo noted that during her time at Meta, the team did not adequately anticipate the risks of AI-powered products, and she described addressing mental health concerns as one of her first tasks at OpenAI under Altman's direction.

In August 2025, Time magazine named Simo to its inaugural list of the 100 Most Influential People in AI, noting her appointment as a signal of OpenAI's emphasis on building commercially viable consumer applications.

Metrodora Institute

Beyond her corporate career, Simo co-founded the Metrodora Institute, a health clinic and research institute focused on neuroimmune diseases. She also serves as president of the Metrodora Foundation.

The institute was named after Metrodora, an ancient Greek physician believed to have authored one of the earliest known medical texts written by a woman.

Fortune reported on the founding of the institute in 2021, describing it as a venture aimed at reimagining the treatment of conditions that disproportionately affect women and are often underdiagnosed or poorly understood. BioCentury later reported on the institute's work in reimagining the treatment of neuroimmune diseases, a category that encompasses complex conditions involving the interaction between the nervous and immune systems.

The Metrodora Institute has focused on conditions including chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), and long COVID. Health Rising reported on the institute's approach to these conditions, which are often grouped under the umbrella of neuroimmune disorders and have historically received limited attention from mainstream medical research and clinical institutions.

Simo has spoken publicly about the intersection of AI and healthcare. In a 2025 podcast appearance on The Dr. Hyman Show, she discussed how AI could help shift healthcare from a model focused on treating symptoms to one that enables individuals to take greater control of their health.

In 2023, Fortune recognized Simo as a health and wellness innovator for her work with the Metrodora Institute.

Other board and civic roles

In addition to her corporate and philanthropic work, Simo has been involved in several board and civic positions. She has served on the board of the L.A. Dance Project.

Personal Life

Simo has one child. She has maintained a relatively private personal life despite her public profile as a technology executive. Her founding of the Metrodora Institute has been described in press coverage as stemming from personal experiences with the healthcare system, particularly around conditions affecting women's health, though she has shared limited details publicly.

Simo holds both French and American citizenship, having been born in France and subsequently building her career in the United States.

Recognition

Throughout her career, Simo has received numerous professional recognitions and honors:

• Fast Company Most Creative People in Business (2017)
• Adweek Mobile Innovators list
• Fortune 40 Under 40 (2021)
• Fortune Most Powerful Women (2023)
• Fortune Health & Wellness Innovators (2023)
• Comparably Best CEO for Large Companies (2023)
• Time 100 Most Influential People in AI (2025)

Legacy

Simo's career has spanned three of the most consequential technology companies of the 2010s and 2020s — Facebook, Instacart, and OpenAI — each at critical points in their development. At Facebook, she helped shape the core product strategy and advertising model that generated tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue. At Instacart, she led the company through its IPO and positioned it as a technology platform rather than a pure delivery service. At OpenAI, she was given responsibility for commercializing what has become one of the most rapidly adopted consumer technologies in history.

Her work with the Metrodora Institute represents a parallel effort to apply organizational and technological thinking to healthcare, particularly for neuroimmune conditions that have historically been underserved by the medical establishment. The institute's focus on chronic fatigue syndrome, POTS, fibromyalgia, and long COVID has addressed conditions affecting millions of people worldwide.

As one of the few women to have served as CEO of multiple major technology companies, Simo's career trajectory has been noted in business media as representative of broader changes in the leadership demographics of the technology sector. Her inclusion on FortuneTemplate:'s Most Powerful Women list and TimeTemplate:'s AI 100 list reflects her standing as a prominent figure in both consumer technology and artificial intelligence.

Her remarks at OpenAI about the need to learn from Meta's experience with product safety — particularly regarding mental health impacts on young users — have positioned her as a voice within the AI industry for proactive risk management in consumer-facing AI applications.