OpenAI hires Anthropic’s Claude Code product lead Catherine Wu
OpenAI has hired Catherine Wu, the former product lead for Anthropic’s Claude Code, to run its Core Products team. Wu’s move follows two years at Anthropic, where she helped scale Claude Code from an internal tool to a full-fledged product. Her departure is the latest in a series of high-profile exits from Anthropic as it prepares for its IPO later this month.
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Wu’s move to OpenAI
Catherine Wu, who led product development for Anthropic’s Claude Code, has left the company to join OpenAI as the head of product management for its Core Products team. Wu announced her move on X, calling it an opportunity to build agents that remove work from users’ plates while keeping them in control.
Background and reactions
Wu’s departure from Anthropic follows two years of building Claude Code, a tool that evolved from a small internal utility into a product handling large-scale migrations and new development. She joined Anthropic in August 2024 as a research product manager and was later named head of product for Claude Code.
Anthropic confirmed Wu’s departure to Business Insider but did not comment further. OpenAI, however, welcomed her publicly, with President Greg Brockman and Thibault Sottiaux, head of OpenAI’s Core Products, acknowledging her hire on X.
Broader talent shifts in AI
Wu is not the only Anthropic employee moving to OpenAI. Austin Lau, a growth marketing manager, has also joined the company. Meanwhile, two other Anthropic staffers—Thariq Shihipar, a skills and context engineer, and Anthony Morris, who developed Claude Code Desktop—have left Anthropic in recent months, though neither has confirmed a move to OpenAI.
These departures come as Anthropic prepares for its IPO, with a filing showing $17 billion in revenue. The listing is scheduled for later this month.
Competition between Anthropic and OpenAI heats up
Wu’s new role at OpenAI places her under Thibault Sottiaux, who leads the Core Products team responsible for Codex, OpenAI’s direct competitor to Claude Code. The hire sharpens the rivalry between the two companies, which are already competing in pricing, model development, and enterprise adoption.
OpenAI has been expanding Codex’s reach beyond software developers, including a June agreement to acquire Ona, a move that allows Codex agents to run in customers’ cloud environments.
Related on Lazyfounder
Sources
- The Decoder · 2026-11-05
Anthropic loses product lead Catherine Wu behind Claude Code to OpenAI - The Next Web · 2026-11-05
Claude Code’s product lead Cat Wu leaves Anthropic to join OpenAI
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Editor, Lazyfounder
Tarun Mottlia edits LazyFounders, covering Indian startups, funding rounds, AI and product launches. Every story on the site is AI-assisted and checked against its cited sources before publication.
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