Claude Code lead Cat Wu announces joining OpenAI one day after leaving
Cat Wu, a key figure behind Claude Code, confirmed she is joining OpenAI just one day after announcing her departure from Anthropic. She will work with Nick Turley on enterprise products and with Ashley Alexander on consumer product business, reporting to Tibo Sottiaux. She joined Anthropic in summer 2024, overseeing Claude Code and Cowork, an AI tool for non-coding tasks, and said October 30 was her last working day at the company. The personnel change comes as Anthropic prepares for an IPO and as OpenAI and Anthropic accelerate their rivalry in the AI coding and enterprise agent markets.
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The key Claude Code product lead has moved to OpenAI, giving readers a window into how the two companies' competition in the AI coding and enterprise agent markets is shaping up.
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Cat Wu is one of the key figures in the development of Claude Code, and together with the product's creator Boris Cherny, she helped drive its evolution from an internal experimental tool into a widely popular AI coding product among developers. Joining OpenAI this time also means that this AI company has brought in a management talent with extensive experience in commercializing AI products from its main competitor, Anthropic.
According to information disclosed by an OpenAI spokesperson, after joining, Cat Wu will work with Nick Turley on enterprise products and with Ashley Alexander to advance the consumer product business, reporting to OpenAI executive Tibo Sottiaux.
On the X platform, Cat Wu said she deeply respects OpenAI and specifically noted that the company already has a massive user base of more than 1 billion users.
Cat Wu joined Anthropic in the summer of 2024 and was responsible for products including Claude Code and Cowork, an AI tool for non-programming tasks. Claude Code launched a research preview in February 2025 and subsequently quickly gained developer recognition for its AI automated coding capabilities, becoming an important growth driver for Anthropic's business.
On November 3, Cat Wu announced that she had left Anthropic, stating that October 30 had been her last working day at the company. She reviewed the journey of Claude Code from its early prototype to the present: initially, users had to manually approve most operations, and the AI was mainly used to answer questions and write tests; today, Claude is capable of complex tasks such as large-scale code migrations and new product development.
Notably, Cat Wu's departure occurred at a critical time when Anthropic was preparing for an IPO. Business Insider previously reported that Anthropic planned to hold an initial public offering in late November. Regarding speculation over whether the departure was related to the timing of share sales, Cat Wu explicitly stated that this was not a factor affecting her decision.
This personnel change also comes as OpenAI and Anthropic are accelerating their competition for the AI coding and enterprise agent markets. OpenAI is continuing to push Codex to expand into broader software development and non-technical task scenarios. Cat Wu's experience in Claude Code product development, user growth, and commercialization may bring new momentum to OpenAI's core products and agent business.