OpenAI AI the startup behind the AI model ChatGPT-5 has completed a new hiring. OpenAI has hired Vijay Raji founder and CEO of Statsig, who will join OpenAI as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of Applications. This move is similar to what Meta did with Alexander Wang by buying his AI startup and poaching him into the AI leadership position at Meta.
The race for the most advanced and capable AI LLM model is on, and these Big Tech Firms are in stiff competition. Meta, OpenAI, Amazon and Microsoft are in a race to poach and hire the best AI minds in the tech industry and use them to one-up their rivals. OpenAI, being no exception, is reshuffling its senior leadership team and making a major acquisition, as it continues to expand its product ambitions.
In a blog post, the company said, “Once the acquisition is finalised, Statsig employees will become OpenAI employees It will continue operating independently and serving its customer base out of its Seattle office. We’ll take a measured approach to any future integration, ensuring continuity for current customers and enabling the team to stay focused on what they do best.”
Who is Vijay Raji?
Vijay Raji is an Indian-origin, Seattle-based founder of Statsig, which OpenAI has described as “one of the most trusted experimentation platforms in the industry”. Raji launched Statsig four-and-a-half years ago, after a career spanning two decades spent at Microsoft and Meta. According to his LinkedIn profile, he graduated from Pondicherry University with a Bachelor of Engineering degree in 1999. After graduation, Raji started working for Microsoft, a company where he spent nearly 10 years.
During his time at Microsoft in Washington, Raji worked on products like Windows Application Framework, SQL Server Modeling Language/Runtime, Visual Studio Editor, and others, according to the Statsig blog. After leaving Microsoft in 2011, Raji joined Facebook. He spent a decade climbing the corporate ladder, going from Software Engineer to VP, Head of Gaming, Head of Facebook Seattle, and ultimately VP and Head of Entertainment.
What is Vijay’s role at OpenAI?
Raji is stepping into the freshly created role of CTO of Applications, reporting directly to Simo. His brief is sweeping: he’ll oversee product engineering for ChatGPT and Codex, as well as responsibility for infrastructure and integrity across OpenAI’s product portfolio.
What did Vijaye Raji say on OpenAI acquisition?
“Joining OpenAI as CTO of Applications is an extraordinary opportunity to bring my experience scaling consumer and enterprise products to a mission I deeply believe in: advancing AI in ways that are capable of solving hard problems, reliable, and truly beneficial to people everywhere. The journey with Statsig has been deeply gratifying, leading me to this moment and giving me conviction that we will continue helping teams ship better software every day,” said Raji.
Changes in OpenAI leadership?
Well, the move by Vijay Raje is not the only one on OpenAI’s plate, there are others changes in the top leadership too like. Fidji Simo, former Instacart boss, who took over as OpenAI’s new CEO of Applications on August 18. Simo has been tasked with building out the organisation’s consumer and business-facing products, and this week’s announcements show she is already leaving her mark.
Other than that, some vertical promotions have also been done like Srinivas Narayanan, who previously led OpenAI’s engineering efforts, has been promoted to another newly created C-suite position, CTO of B2B Applications. Narayanan has been deeply involved in developing ChatGPT, APIs for developers, and related tools.
In his new role, he’ll oversee all business-facing products, from startups and enterprises to government clients, reporting directly to COO Brad Lightcap. Meanwhile, Kevin Weil, OpenAI’s Chief Product Officer, is heading back towards the research side of the business. Weil will now serve as Vice President of AI for Science, building out a new research-focused team in partnership with Chief Research Officer Mark Chen. With his shift, Weil’s former product organisation, including Nick Turley, who heads ChatGPT, will now report to Simo.
