Claude Code product lead Cat Wu leaves Anthropic for OpenAI

Cat Wu, who led product for Anthropic’s Claude Code, has left Anthropic to join OpenAI, The Next Web reported on 5 November. Wu announced the move on X. According to the report, she had said on Tuesday that the previous Friday was her last day at Anthropic, thanking the Claude Code, Cowork and Tag teams without saying why she was leaving, and announced the OpenAI role a day later.

At OpenAI she will lead product management for the Core Products team, which The Next Web describes as the group behind Codex, the coding product that competes with Claude Code. She reports to Thibault Sottiaux, who leads Core Products, and will work with Nick Turley on enterprise products and Ashley Alexander on consumer products. OpenAI confirmed the hire to Business Insider, according to the report, and Sottiaux and Greg Brockman welcomed her publicly. Anthropic declined to comment.

Wu joined Anthropic in August 2024 as a research product manager, when, The Next Web said, Claude Code was a small internal tool, and was later listed as head of product for it. The article notes that a second Claude Code staff member, Thariq Shihipar, left Anthropic in October.

The report noted the timing: Anthropic has filed publicly for an initial public offering. Asked whether leaving would let her sell shares earlier than colleagues, Wu said she had “no idea” and that it “wasn’t a factor for me”, the report said.

The move is recorded here on the strength of one secondary report; Wu’s own post was not reviewed.