Cat Wu joins OpenAI — Cat Wu, the product manager who helped turn Anthropic’s Claude Code into a commercial success, has moved to OpenAI, where she will lead product management for the company’s core products team. The hire, announced by Wu on X, represents a significant talent win for OpenAI as it competes with Anthropic ahead of the latter’s planned initial public offering.
A product leader with a proven track record
Wu joined Anthropic in summer 2024 and quickly became one of the company’s most visible product figures. She oversaw Claude Code’s evolution from an internal prototype into a widely used tool that has strengthened Anthropic’s finances and changed how software engineers approach their daily work. Her social media advocacy helped raise the app’s profile, and she was frequently associated with its rise.
Her departure from Anthropic was announced on Tuesday; she noted she had left the previous week and thanked the Claude Code team and its users. The timing places her exit just weeks before Anthropic’s hotly anticipated IPO, a period when the startup is presenting its financials to investors and working to reinforce its growth story.
OpenAI’s strategic gain
At OpenAI, Wu will report to Tibo Sottiaux and collaborate with Nick Turley on enterprise products and Ashley Alexander on consumer products, according to a company representative. In her announcement post, she expressed respect for OpenAI and pointed to its reach of more than 1 billion users. She also outlined her focus: building agents that support users and their teams while keeping people in control, so they have more time for the work and people they value.
The move could bolster OpenAI’s Codex, a coding tool similar to Claude Code. Codex has contributed to OpenAI’s growth and is increasingly being applied to non-technical work. Improving Codex adoption has been a priority for OpenAI since it fell behind Anthropic in enterprise sales earlier this year. Wu’s experience with Claude Code’s commercial trajectory may help OpenAI close that gap.
A boomerang history and a high-profile exit
This is not Wu’s first departure from Anthropic for a rival. After joining in 2024, she and Claude Code creator Boris Cherny left for AI coding startup Cursor in 2025 but soon returned to Anthropic, according to The Information. The pair then led Claude Code’s rapid ascent late that year and into 2026, as new model capabilities for code-writing attracted software developers in droves. Eventually, improvements in OpenAI’s Codex drew similar attention as developers sought to automate more of the coding process.
Before her time at Anthropic, Wu was a partner at Index Ventures, which later co-led Anthropic’s September 2025 funding round. In response to a question about whether she would take time off, she wrote “post agi!,” a reference to the industry’s goal of artificial general intelligence. She also addressed speculation about whether leaving would allow her to sell shares earlier than remaining employees, stating she had “no idea” and that it “wasn’t a factor for me.”
OpenAI confirmed Wu’s hire, while Anthropic declined to comment. Wu did not respond to a request for comment.