Who is Vijaye Raji, whose AI startup has been acquired by OpenAI for $1 bn?

OpenAI announced that Vijaye Raji's Statsig has played a central role in how the company ships and learns quickly

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Indian-origin entrepreneur Vijaye Raji has made a billion-dollar leap by selling his product testing startup, Statsig, to artificial intelligence giant OpenAI in an all-stock deal.

 

In a blog post on Tuesday, OpenAI announced the acquisition of Statsig in a $1 billion deal saying that the platform has played a central role in "how we ship and learn quickly". 

 

"We’re acquiring Statsig, one of the most trusted experimentation platforms in the industry—powering A/B testing, feature flagging, and real-time decisioning for some of the world’s most innovative companies, including OpenAI," the post read.

Who is Vijaye Raji?

Seattle-based Raji graduated from Pondicherry University with a bachelor of engineering degree in 1999. He joined Microsoft in 2001, where he stayed for nearly 10 years before joining Facebook in 2011. Raji stayed with the company for 10 years, transitioning from software engineer to V-P, head of gaming, head of Facebook Seattle, and ultimately becoming V-P and head of entertainment. 

 

Raji, along with his team, founded Statsig 4.5 years ago on the belief that the best products come from rapid experimentation, tight feedback loops, and data-informed decision-making.

Raji joins OpenAI as CTO of Applications

After having decades long stints at Microsoft and Facebook, Raji is now set to join OpenAI as the chief technology officer of applications. Raji will step into a new role as CTO of Applications??, reporting to Fidji Simo, following the acquisition of Statsig, the company said.

 

"As a hands-on builder and trusted leader, Vijaye will head product engineering for ChatGPT and Codex, with responsibilities that span core systems and product lines including infrastructure and Integrity. His experience as founder and CEO of Statsig, and a decade leading large-scale consumer engineering at Meta, brings both entrepreneurial vision and operating expertise to scale our next generation of products," OpenAI said in a statement.

OpenAI to retain Statsig employees

As part of the acquisition, Statsig employees will become OpenAI employees. The company will continue operating independently and serving our customers.

 

Commenting on the deal, Raji said, "Over the past 4.5 years, we’ve built something special at Statsig: a platform that the world's best technology companies rely on to build fast and make smart decisions." In an X post, Raji said that joining forces with OpenAI will help us expand our mission, while maintaining continuity for our current customers.

 

Raji said that joining OpenAI "is an extraordinary opportunity to bring my experience scaling consumer and enterprise products to a mission I deeply believe in".