Vijaye Raji becomes CTO of Applications as company reorganizes leadership around consumer and enterprise products
OpenAI has agreed to acquire product testing startup Statsig for $1.1 billion in an all-stock deal, marking one of the largest acquisitions in the ChatGPT maker’s history as it aggressively expands its Applications business under new leadership.
The acquisition brings Statsig founder and CEO Vijaye Raji to OpenAI as CTO of Applications, where he’ll oversee product engineering for ChatGPT, AI coding tool Codex, and future consumer applications. The deal, valued at OpenAI’s current $300 billion valuation, is pending regulatory approval.
Strategic Leadership Reorganization
The Statsig acquisition triggers a broader leadership restructuring at OpenAI, reflecting the company’s evolution from AI research lab to consumer product powerhouse. Raji will report to Fidji Simo, the former Instacart CEO who recently joined as CEO of Applications, creating a dedicated consumer products division.
Chief Product Officer Kevin Weil is transitioning to lead “OpenAI for Science,” a new division focused on building AI-powered platforms for scientific discovery. Weil will collaborate with Sebastien Bubeck, an OpenAI researcher and former Microsoft VP, on what he describes as “the next great scientific instrument.”
Meanwhile, current Head of Engineering Srinivas Narayanan moves to CTO of B2B Applications, working directly with COO Brad Lightcap on enterprise customer relationships.
Experimentation Platform Powers Product Development
Statsig’s A/B testing, feature flagging, and real-time decision-making platform already plays a central role in OpenAI’s product development process. The acquisition brings this capability in-house, potentially accelerating experimentation across OpenAI’s Applications organization.
“The Statsig platform has already played a central role in how we ship and learn quickly,” OpenAI stated. “Bringing it in-house will strengthen our ability to accelerate experimentation across our Applications org and build even better, more responsive experiences.”
Proven Track Record in Consumer Scale
Raji brings significant experience scaling consumer products from his decade at Meta, combined with entrepreneurial expertise from founding Statsig. His background aligns with OpenAI’s ambition to serve “hundreds of millions of people and businesses around the world” through intuitive AI applications.
“Vijaye has a remarkable record of building new consumer and B2B products and systems at scale,” said Simo. “His leadership will help turn that progress into safe applications that empower people with many new tools to improve their lives.”
Preserving Statsig’s Independent Operations
Despite the acquisition, Statsig will continue operating independently from its Seattle office, serving existing customers while gradually integrating with OpenAI’s infrastructure. All Statsig employees will become OpenAI employees once the deal closes, subject to regulatory approval.
The measured integration approach aims to maintain continuity for current Statsig customers while enabling the team to focus on their core competencies in experimentation and testing platforms.
Applications Business Takes Center Stage
The reorganization highlights OpenAI’s strategic pivot toward consumer and enterprise applications, moving beyond its foundational role as an AI research company. With Simo leading Applications and dedicated CTOs for both consumer and B2B products, the structure reflects serious commercial ambitions.
“Our ambition is to push the frontier of AI research and turn it into intuitive, safe, and useful tools that people love,” the company stated, emphasizing the translation from research to practical applications.
Market Positioning and Competition
The $1.1 billion acquisition represents OpenAI’s largest deal to date and signals aggressive competition in the AI applications market. By acquiring rather than building experimentation capabilities, OpenAI accelerates its product development timeline while gaining proven expertise in rapid iteration and data-driven decision-making.
Raji emphasized the strategic alignment: “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.”
Future Implications for AI Development
The acquisition and leadership changes position OpenAI for accelerated product launches and improved user experiences across its growing application portfolio. The combination of Statsig’s experimentation platform with OpenAI’s AI capabilities could enable more sophisticated product testing and faster iteration cycles.
As OpenAI scales from AI research to mass-market applications, the Statsig acquisition provides critical infrastructure for managing complex product rollouts and optimizing user experiences across millions of users.
The deal, expected to close following regulatory review, represents OpenAI’s commitment to building comprehensive AI application capabilities while maintaining its research leadership in artificial intelligence development.
