OpenAI Purchases Product Testing Firm Statsig and Restructures Leadership Team

On Tuesday, OpenAI announced in a blog post that it has finalized an agreement to acquire the product testing startup Statsig, bringing onboard its founder and CEO, Vijaye Raji, as the company’s CTO of Applications.

OpenAI is set to acquire Statsig for $1.1 billion through an all-stock transaction, marking one of the most significant acquisitions for the creator of ChatGPT, according to a statement from OpenAI spokesperson Kayla Wood to TechCrunch. This deal falls within the company’s current $300 billion valuation.

This acquisition underscores OpenAI’s ongoing efforts to bolster its Applications division, now led by Fidji Simo, who recently transitioned from her role as CEO of Instacart. Raji will report to Simo and will be responsible for overseeing product engineering for ChatGPT, the AI coding tool Codex, and future applications that OpenAI plans to develop. The integration of Statsig’s experimentation platform is anticipated to accelerate product development for the Applications team.

With Raji’s addition, OpenAI is also restructuring its leadership framework.

Kevin Weil, the company’s Chief Product Officer, announced on LinkedIn his transition to Vice President of a newly established group named OpenAI for Science. He stated that the objective of this new organization is “to create the next great scientific instrument: an AI-powered platform that accelerates scientific discovery.” Weil intends to work closely with Sebastien Bubeck, an OpenAI researcher and former VP of AI and Distinguished Scientist at Microsoft.

“I can embrace this role due to the exceptional product and design leaders at OpenAI, made even stronger with Fidji Simo stepping into her position as CEO of Applications,” remarked Weil. “OpenAI’s products have greatly influenced my journey since I joined, and they are in capable hands.”

Simultaneously, OpenAI’s current head of engineering, Srinivas Narayanan, revealed on LinkedIn that he will transition to the new role of CTO of B2B Applications. In this capacity, Narayanan will collaborate closely with OpenAI’s COO, Brad Lightcap, who oversees many of the company’s relationships with enterprise clients.

OpenAI has indicated that the acquisition of Statsig is pending regulatory review. Once finalized, all Statsig employees will join OpenAI; however, the product testing startup will “continue to operate independently and serve its customer base from its Seattle office,” according to the blog post.