Vijaye Raji to become CTO of applications with acquisition of Statsig

Indian-origin entrepreneur Vijaye Raji has been appointed Chief Technology Officer of Applications (CTO of Apps) at OpenAI, following the company’s $1.1 billion all-stock acquisition of his Seattle-based startup Statsig. The leadership move was officially announced by OpenAI on September 2, 2025.

Fundamentally, Statsig creates the critical infrastructure that present-day product teams need to deliver features securely, track performance, and make quick decisions. Its platform combines large-scale experimentation, feature flag management, A/B testing, and comprehensive analytics into a single, efficient system. As a result, engineering and product teams can scale new ideas with confidence, validate assumptions with actual user data, and minimize guesswork. Thousands of teams use Statsig today, and it has well-known clients in the media, gaming, and software sectors.

An Indian-origin engineer and founder, Raji spent roughly a decade at Microsoft before more than 10 years at Facebook/Meta, where he helped build and scale initiatives such as Marketplace, Gaming, and the Seattle engineering office. He founded Statsig in 2021 to democratize data-driven product decisions; now he steps in to lead product engineering for ChatGPT and other OpenAI apps, reporting into the Applications leadership.

The announcement was met with an outpouring of support and optimism from industry leaders. Fidji Simo, CEO of OpenAI Applications, said: “Vijaye has a remarkable record of building new consumer and B2B products and systems at scale. His leadership will help turn that progress into safe applications that empower people.” Raji, in turn, expressed his excitement in a blog post: “Joining OpenAI as CTO of Applications is an extraordinary opportunity... The journey with Statsig has been deeply gratifying, giving me conviction that we will continue helping teams ship better software every day.”

Investors too have hailed the move as a validation of AI’s infrastructure layer. Soma Somasegar, Managing Director at Madrona, one of Statsig’s earliest backers, reflected: “Statsig’s data-driven approach has already made it one of the leading intelligent application companies, and joining OpenAI will allow its mission of rapid experimentation and customer focus to continue at a greater scale.” Industry watchers in India’s IT and SaaS sectors echoed similar sentiments, noting that the deal lowers barriers for enterprise AI adoption and could drive a surge in demand for experimentation engineers, data scientists, and product analytics talent in India.

This move will have a significant impact on India's business and technology ecosystem. Indian IT services companies and SaaS start ups will have more chances to incorporate sophisticated A/B testing, feature management, and analytics into enterprise AI deployments as a result of OpenAI acquiring Statsig's experimentation platform. Because they will have quantifiable, dependable rollouts, banks, insurers, retailers, and manufacturers in India could adopt ChatGPT-like applications with greater assurance. India is expected to see an increase in demand for data scientists, AI engineers, and product analytics experts, solidifying Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Gurugram as major international centres for AI-driven testing and expansion.

In addition to the acquisition's immediate enterprise adoption, it also represents a boost to India's AI startup scene's capital market. The business case for infrastructure-focused AI companies is validated by a $1.1 billion deal in developer tools, which encourages Indian corporates and venture capitalists to support similar initiatives domestically. With Indian-origin founder Vijaye Raji taking over as OpenAI's CEO, the narrative also serves as an inspiration for Indian engineers and businesspeople. It strengthens India's position as a major force influencing the global AI economy in addition to being a talent supplier, which could speed up investment and policy attention to deep-tech innovation in the nation.

Raji's promotion is a clear route from engineering leadership with Indian roots to positions at the top of AI products. This improves ties between academia and industry and draws talent back to AI programs in India (corporate R&D centres, unicorns, and deep-tech start ups). The signal value at home is highlighted by the Indian media's focus on his background.

With Sequoia leading venture rounds and Madrona providing long-term support, Statsig expanded rapidly on the promise of unified experimentation + feature management. Prior to this week's result, in May 2025, it announced a $100M Series C at a $1.1B valuation. The company's journey from "day zero" to unicorn has been chronicled by investor blogs and GeekWire.

With Raji’s elevation to one of OpenAI’s most critical leadership roles, the story has become more than just a billion-dollar exit, it is a symbol of India’s expanding role in global AI innovation. For India Inc., the deal serves as both a talent signal and a market catalyst, potentially opening doors for deeper AI adoption, fresh capital inflows into developer tools, and stronger academia-industry partnerships.

The acquisition not only strengthens OpenAI’s product roadmap but also stands as a milestone for Indian-origin leadership in global tech, offering a glimpse into how India’s talent will shape the future of artificial intelligence.

TL;DR

OpenAI’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Statsig and the appointment of Vijaye Raji as CTO of Applications mark a pivotal step in merging experimentation with artificial intelligence. While the move strengthens OpenAI’s product pipeline globally, it also signals India’s rising influence in AI leadership and opens fresh opportunities for enterprise adoption, investment, and talent growth within the country.