Cat Wu (@_catwu), previously Head of Product for Claude Code and Cowork at Anthropic, announced on X on November 5, 2026 that she is joining OpenAI to lead product management for Core Products. OpenAI president Greg Brockman and OpenAI product leader Thibault "Tibo" Sottiaux welcomed her the same day. Business Insider reports that OpenAI confirmed the hire and that Anthropic declined to comment.
Key Facts
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Who | Cat Wu (@_catwu); formerly Anthropic Head of Product for Claude Code and Cowork |
| New role (her words) | Lead product management for Core Products at OpenAI |
| Announcement | X post, November 5, 2026, 00:25 UTC |
| Stated last day at Anthropic | Friday, October 30, 2026 (farewell post November 3, 2026) |
| Named collaborator | Thibault "Tibo" Sottiaux (@thsottiaux) |
| OpenAI confirmation | Business Insider: OpenAI confirmed the hire; she will report to Sottiaux and work with Nick Turley (enterprise) and Ashley Alexander (consumer) |
| Anthropic | Declined to comment (Business Insider) |
Background
Wu's November 3 farewell post said Friday (October 30) was her last day at Anthropic. She described joining when Claude Code was still a small internal tool and thanked teams behind Claude Code, Cowork, and Tag. Business Insider and RuntimeWire describe her as the product leader who helped take Claude Code from an internal prototype to a widely used coding-agent product that competed with OpenAI's Codex.
In her OpenAI announcement she wrote that she has "a lot of respect for OpenAI" for scale ("bringing AI to over a billion people") and for treating products as central to the mission. She said she looks forward to working with Sottiaux and the PM team to "build agents that have your back and your team's, and keep you in control." Brockman quote-posted a welcome; Sottiaux wrote, "Welcome Cat. Stoked to be building together soon."
Business Insider notes she joined Anthropic in summer 2024 and that she and Claude Code creator Boris Cherny briefly left for Cursor in 2025 before returning to Anthropic, as earlier reported by The Information. Before Anthropic she worked at Index Ventures and elsewhere, according to secondary reports.
Reactions and Impact
OpenAI's confirmation and the same-day welcomes from Brockman and Sottiaux establish the hire as company-backed, not only a personal post. Business Insider frames the move as competition for coding-agent product talent between Claude Code and Codex. Wu's own posts do not name ChatGPT, Codex, or a start date.
What We Don't Know Yet
- Exact start date at OpenAI, and which Core Products portfolio she owns day to day (her post names the function and agents as the focus; BI's reporting line detail comes from an OpenAI representative, not from Wu's post).
- Whether Anthropic will issue a statement beyond declining comment.
- Any binding non-compete, equity, or transfer terms; Wu answered on X that earlier share sale was "not a factor," per Business Insider, but terms remain private.
- How the hire changes Claude Code or Codex roadmaps (not stated by either company).