Cat Wu joins OpenAI from Anthropic in huge product-lead coup

Cat Wu, who led the product side of Claude Code at Anthropic, left the AI startup for rival OpenAI. Don Feria/AP Content Services for Anthropic Cat Wu, who left Anthropic last week after becoming one of the company's highest-profile product managers, is joining OpenAI. She announced the news on X.Poaching Wu from its archrival is a major coup for OpenAI. Wu was the product leader for Claude Code and had become one of the blockbuster app's prominent evangelists on social media. She oversaw the tool's rise from an internal prototype to a commercial juggernaut that has bolstered both Anthropic's finances and the day-to-day work of software engineers.Now, she'll help Anthropic's elder rival, leading product management for OpenAI's core products team. She wrote in the announcement post that she has "a lot of respect for OpenAI" and cited its broad reach of over 1 billion users.OpenAI's Codex, a tool similar to Claude Code, has boosted the company's growth and, more recently, has increasingly been pointed at non-technical work. AI models' coding abilities and their ability to handle long-term tasks are now central to the industry's growing ambitions.Wu announced her departure from Anthropic on Tuesday, writing that she'd left last week and thanking Claude Code's team and user base. The exit arrived just a couple of weeks before Anthropic's planned initial public offering, as the startup pitches its financials to investors and tries to shore up its growth narrative.OpenAI confirmed that Wu is joining the company. Anthropic declined to comment. On X, Wu wrote that she had "no idea" if leaving would allow her to sell her shares earlier than remaining employees, and said it "wasn't a factor for me."She also wrote back to a question about whether she'd be taking time off with the response, "post agi!," a reference to the industry goal of "artificial general intelligence."Her post on Wednesday, announcing her move to OpenAI, said, "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." This isn't the first time Wu left Anthropic for a rival since joining in summer 2024. She and Claude Code creator Boris Cherny departed for AI coding startup Cursor in 2025, but quickly boomeranged to Anthropic, The Information reported at the time.She and Cherny led Claude Code's rapid rise late that year and into 2026, buoyed by new AI model capabilities for code-writing work. Software developers flocked to the tool, and eventually to OpenAI's version, Codex, as improvements enabled them to automate more and more of the coding process.Wu did not respond to a request for comment. Before Anthropic, she worked as a partner at Index Ventures, which would eventually co-lead Anthropic's September 2025 funding round.Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at scouncil@businessinsider.com, or over text, Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 415-757-8198. Use a personal email address, a non-work WiFi network, and a non-work device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. Read next Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Business Insider tells the innovative stories you want to know Stephen is a senior tech reporter at Business Insider, covering OpenAI, Anthropic and the ecosystem around the leading artificial intelligence companies.Previously he covered technology at SFGATE, and has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Information and CNBC. He studied journalism and economics at Northwestern University.His work has earned an SF Press Club Investigative Reporting Award and, in 2025, SPJ NorCal’s Excellence in Journalism Award for Technology Reporting.Stephen lives in San Francisco. Contact him via email at scouncil@businessinsider.com, or on Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 415-757-8198. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. AI Anthropic OpenAI More