Claude Code boss Cat Wu quit Anthropic — and joined OpenAI

Cat Wu announced on X on November 5 that she is joining OpenAI to lead product management for Core Products, working with Thibault Sottiaux, the Codex and ChatGPT chief — who welcomed her with a one-word quip: “CatGPT.” Her last day at Anthropic was October 30, two years after she joined to build Claude Code from a small internal tool into the company's hit coding product.

She is not the only Anthropic departure heading to the rival: growth marketer Austin Lau said the same night he had also joined OpenAI, and Claude Code engineers Thariq Shihipar and Anthony Morris have left Anthropic in recent weeks as well, though neither has said where they are going.

The timing lands weeks before Anthropic's planned public listing later this month. Wu says her focus at OpenAI is building agents that take work off users' plates while keeping them in control — the same pitch she made for Claude Code, now delivered for the competition.