Cat Wu, who left Anthropic last week, says she is joining OpenAI to lead product manangement for core products; Wu was the product lead for Claude Code

OpenAI gained a key product leader for its core AI offerings, potentially accelerating its competition with Anthropic in enterprise AI.

Cat Wu, a prominent product manager who was formerly the product lead for Anthropic's Claude Code, has joined OpenAI. Wu announced her move on X, stating her respect for OpenAI and its user base of over one billion. Her departure from Anthropic occurred last week, just weeks before the company's planned IPO. Wu was instrumental in developing Claude Code from an internal prototype into a commercially successful product that significantly impacted software engineers' workflows. At OpenAI, she will lead product management for core products, including enterprise and consumer offerings, reporting to Tibo Sottiaux. This hire follows OpenAI's earlier development of Codex, a similar coding tool, and may help address challenges with enterprise sales where Anthropic had gained ground. Wu previously left Anthropic for AI coding startup Cursor in 2025 before returning.

Wu's move to OpenAI signals a fierce talent war between the two AI giants, particularly in specialized areas like AI-powered coding tools. Her experience with Claude Code, a product that significantly boosted Anthropic's market position and engineer productivity, suggests OpenAI aims to revitalize or expand its own coding assistant capabilities, potentially challenging Anthropic's recent enterprise sales momentum. This strategic acquisition of talent could influence the future development and go-to-market strategies for both companies' flagship AI products.

The timing of Wu's departure, preceding Anthropic's IPO, highlights the high stakes in the current AI funding landscape and the aggressive tactics employed by competitors to secure critical expertise. Her focus on building "agents that have your back" indicates a continued emphasis on practical, user-centric AI applications. This hire suggests OpenAI is prioritizing the enhancement of its core products to maintain its lead and capture a larger share of the growing market for AI tools that augment professional workflows.