Cat Wu said on X on Thursday, 5 November, that she is joining OpenAI to lead product management for Core Products, FourWeekMBA reported. The move takes Anthropic’s former Head of Product for Claude Code and Cowork to a rival less than a week after her last day there, Crypto Briefing reported.
Key points
- Wu announced on 5 November that she is joining OpenAI to lead product management for Core Products.
- Her last day at Anthropic was 30 October. She had led product for Claude Code and Cowork.
- Wu said she will work with the account @thsottiaux and OpenAI’s product management team on agents.
Wu’s Core Products role at OpenAI
Wu posted the announcement at 00:25 UTC on 5 November. She said she would work with @thsottiaux, an OpenAI product management team and colleagues across the company. Her post describes an aim to build agents that help people and teams while keeping users in control.
That is a product-management brief, rather than a research appointment. Wu’s stated focus is on how people use agents — AI systems that carry out multistep tasks — and how much control they retain while those systems work.
Wu also praised OpenAI for bringing AI to “over a billion people” and for treating products as central to its mission. That reach is Wu’s claim in her announcement. Wu says she will lead product management for Core Products, while describing the work she hopes to do in terms of agents rather than a named product.
Claude Code grew during Wu’s tenure
Wu joined Anthropic in August 2024 and became Head of Product for Claude Code and Cowork. Claude Code developed from an internal tool into a major revenue driver for Anthropic, Crypto Briefing reported. Wu had previously worked at Scale AI, Dagster and Index Ventures.
Her departure was public before her destination was. Wu wrote on 3 November that 30 October had been her last day at Anthropic. Her announcement of the OpenAI role followed on 5 November.
In her departure post, Wu described a change in how Claude Code was used: “Today, the default is trusting Claude’s judgment to auto-approve.” At OpenAI, she says she wants to build agents that “keep you in control”. Both remarks put the experience of directing an agent’s work at the centre of her public account of the two roles.
Other Claude Code departures and OpenAI’s welcome
Wu is not the only person to leave Anthropic’s Claude Code team. Thariq Shihipar and Anthony Morris have also departed, Crypto Briefing reported. Shihipar said in a 24 October post that he planned to take a break before starting something new.
FourWeekMBA reported that @thsottiaux replied to Wu’s announcement at 00:29 UTC on 5 November, four minutes after she posted it. The account’s message was brief: “Welcome Cat. Stoked to be building together soon.”
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