OpenAI has poached another key executive from old rival Anthropic. Former Claude Code product lead Cat Wu announced today on social media that she is officially joining as Head of Product Management for Core Products, working on OpenAI’s core products and AI agent business. She will work with Nick Turley, head of enterprise products, and Ashley Alexander, head of consumer products, and report to Tibo Sottiaux; OpenAI President Greg Brockman later reposted the onboarding news on X and publicly welcomed her.
This product leader is no ordinary player—she experienced firsthand Claude Code’s journey from internal prototype to commercialization, was an important early promoter on social media, and also oversaw Anthropic’s Cowork product for non-coding knowledge work, giving her deep experience in productizing AI agents and office scenarios. This transfer undoubtedly adds more fuel to the already white-hot rivalry between the two companies.
A Product Earning $2.5 Billion a Year Wu’s weight comes largely from the star tool she helped hone. According to Anthropic, as of February 2026, Claude Code’s annualized revenue run rate had surpassed $2.5 billion, more than doubling from the start of the year; weekly active users had doubled; and enterprise subscriptions had reached 4 times the level at the start of the year.
During the period she helped drive it, Claude Code gradually cemented a leading position in the AI coding field. In other words, OpenAI didn’t just poach one person; it also brought over the product methodology behind a benchmark product. This also explains why OpenAI was willing to publicly throw its weight behind a product lead.
Two In, Two Out—and a Talent War In her joining statement, Wu was lavish in her praise of OpenAI, saying she admires the company for "proving to the world that AI at scale is feasible," bringing AI to more than a billion people, and always believing that great products are the core of fulfilling the mission. This is not the first time she turned around at Anthropic’s door: in 2025, she and Boris Cherny jumped ship together to coding startup Cursor, only to return to Anthropic about two weeks later to continue refining Claude Code.
Now that she has left again, it precisely mirrors the industry’s direction—as competition has escalated from foundation models all the way to coding tools, agents, and office products, core talent with a track record of successful commercialization is becoming the piece that giants most want to grab. And where Wu has landed is just the latest footnote in this shadow war.
