Claude Code’s product lead Cat Wu leaves Anthropic to join OpenAI

Cat Wu, who led product for Claude Code at Anthropic, is joining OpenAI. She will lead product management for OpenAI’s Core Products team, she announced on X on Wednesday, a day after saying she had left Anthropic.

Some news: I’m joining OpenAI to lead product management for Core Products!

I have a lot of respect for OpenAI for showing the world that scaling works, for bringing AI to over a billion people, and for believing great products are core to the mission.

I’m excited to work with @thsottiaux, an incredible PM team, and everyone across OpenAI. Together, we’ll build agents that have your back and your team’s, and keep you in control, so you get more time for the people and work you love.

Lots to learn, and lots to build. Please keep your feedback coming!

cat (@_catwu) November 5, 2026

OpenAI confirmed the hire to Business Insider, and Anthropic declined to comment. An OpenAI representative told Stephen Council of Business Insider that Wu will report to Thibault Sottiaux. She will work with Nick Turley on enterprise products and Ashley Alexander on consumer products.

“Welcome Cat. Stoked to be building together soon.” Thibault Sottiaux, OpenAI, on X

OpenAI president Greg Brockman also welcomed her on X.

Two years on Claude Code

Wu wrote on Tuesday that Friday had been her last day at Anthropic. She joined Claude Code two years ago, when it was a small internal tool. Anthropic confirmed her departure to Business Insider.

“Today, the default is trusting Claude’s judgment to auto-approve. Claude does large migrations and builds new products.” Cat Wu, on X

In the same post, she thanked the teams behind Claude Code, Cowork, and Tag. She did not say why she was leaving.

Wu joined Anthropic in August 2024 as a research product manager, she wrote in a March article on Anthropic’s site. That article lists her as Head of Product for Claude Code. Before Anthropic, she was a product engineer at Scale AI and Dagster, then a venture capitalist. Business Insider reported she was a partner at Index Ventures.

Thariq Shihipar, who also worked on Claude Code, announced his own departure from Anthropic in October, Business Insider reported.

Weeks before Anthropic’s IPO

Wu leaves as Anthropic heads toward its stock market listing, planned for later this month. Its amended IPO filing shows $17bn in revenue, after it filed to go public in October.

Asked on X whether leaving would let her sell shares earlier than staff who stayed, Wu wrote that she had “no idea”. She added that it “wasn’t a factor for me,” Business Insider reported.

At OpenAI, Sottiaux leads Core Products, the group behind Codex, OpenAI’s rival to Claude Code. OpenAI has been pushing Codex beyond software developers, and in June agreed to buy Ona to run Codex agents in customers’ clouds.