--- title: Who really runs OpenAI now? | daily.dev description: A podcast interview between Decoder host Nilay Patel and Verge senior AI reporter Hayden Field examines how OpenAI president Greg Brockman has consolidated... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/who-really-runs-openai-now--vjoxf7keu twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Who really runs OpenAI now? | daily.dev og:description: A podcast interview between Decoder host Nilay Patel and Verge senior AI reporter Hayden Field examines how OpenAI president Greg Brockman has consolidated... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/who-really-runs-openai-now--vjoxf7keu og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/VjOxf7KeU.png og:image:alt: Who really runs OpenAI now? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Who really runs OpenAI now? **[The Verge](https://daily.dev/sources/theverge)** · 33 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A podcast interview between Decoder host Nilay Patel and Verge senior AI reporter Hayden Field examines how OpenAI president Greg Brockman has consolidated day-to-day operational control over the company as a wave of executives—including Bill Peebles, Kevin Weil, Fidji Simo, Kate Rouch, Srinivas Narayanan, Brad Lightcap, and Denise Dresser—have departed since April. Brockman now oversees consumer, enterprise, core infrastructure, scaling, and product strategy, while Sam Altman focuses on long-term direction and the company's upcoming IPO. The discussion covers OpenAI's competitive struggles against Anthropic in enterprise revenue, its bets on consumer products and Jony Ive-designed hardware, cost-cutting ahead of going public, and Brockman's political donations to Trump-aligned groups, which the pair debate could help OpenAI externally while creating friction with employees internally. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Who is running OpenAI's day-to-day operations now, Sam Altman or Greg Brockman? Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president and cofounder, has become the company's day-to-day operational leader, while Sam Altman remains CEO but focuses on long-term direction and the IPO. Brockman now controls the company's product strategy, scaling, core infrastructure, and all of consumer (including health, commerce, personal finance, and ChatGPT), following the departures of executives like Fidji Simo, Brad Lightcap, and Denise Dresser. _Developers building on OpenAI's platforms can track leadership and strategy shifts like this on daily.dev._ ### Why have so many OpenAI executives left the company recently? Since April, OpenAI has lost Bill Peebles (Sora), Kevin Weil, Fidji Simo, Kate Rouch, Srinivas Narayanan, Brad Lightcap, and Denise Dresser, partly driven by cost-cutting and balance-sheet pressure ahead of an IPO, and partly by executives cashing out stock options before going public. Industry sources called the pace and volume of departures unusual compared to typical pre-IPO C-suite turnover. _Anyone weighing where to build with OpenAI's stack can follow this kind of organizational turbulence on daily.dev._ ### Why did OpenAI hire Fidji Simo and why did her consumer strategy stall? Fidji Simo, former Instacart CEO and a top Meta executive, was hired to turn ChatGPT's consumer product into a Google-style ad-supported business built around an 'empty text box' model, an idea Sam Altman credited to Peter Thiel. She departed OpenAI, and the initiative has partly fallen by the wayside as the company refocused on enterprise and coding as its key revenue drivers ahead of its IPO. _Teams evaluating OpenAI's consumer roadmap versus enterprise focus can follow updates like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman reportedly takes charge of product strategy](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-co-founder-greg-brockman-reportedly-takes-charge-of-product-strategy-6ivj8m2ze) · TechCrunch · 5 upvotes · 0 comments - [Musk v. Altman week 2: OpenAI fires back, and Shivon Zilis reveals that Musk tried to poach Sam Altman](https://daily.dev/posts/musk-v-altman-week-2-openai-fires-back-and-shivon-zilis-reveals-that-musk-tried-to-poach-sam-altm-rg1orimh7) · MIT Technology Review · 2 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#leadership](https://daily.dev/tags/leadership), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic), [#ipo](https://daily.dev/tags/ipo) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/who-really-runs-openai-now--vjoxf7keu) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Who really runs OpenAI now?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/who-really-runs-openai-now--vjoxf7keu","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/who-really-runs-openai-now--vjoxf7keu"},"datePublished":"2026-08-27T14:02:19.193Z","dateModified":"2026-08-28T00:19:08.034Z","description":"A podcast interview between Decoder host Nilay Patel and Verge senior AI reporter Hayden Field examines how OpenAI president Greg Brockman has consolidated...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/5208c57957651d657911ae14c2b566f8?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/5208c57957651d657911ae14c2b566f8?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Verge","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Verge","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/eacb57b3570d4f04b1f0dc8f834d8135","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/theverge"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/who-really-runs-openai-now--vjoxf7keu","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"openai,leadership,anthropic,ipo","timeRequired":"PT33M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Verge","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/theverge"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Who really runs OpenAI now?"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/who-really-runs-openai-now--vjoxf7keu#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Who is running OpenAI's day-to-day operations now, Sam Altman or Greg Brockman?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Greg Brockman, OpenAI's president and cofounder, has become the company's day-to-day operational leader, while Sam Altman remains CEO but focuses on long-term direction and the IPO. 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