GitHub CEO Steps Down to Launch New Venture

GitHub's longtime chief announces departure to found a new startup, with the platform continuing under Microsoft's CoreAI.

GitHub CEO Steps Down to Launch New Venture

Thomas Dohmke, who has led GitHub for more than a decade, will step down as chief executive at the end of 2025 to found another startup. GitHub will stay aligned with Microsoft through the CoreAI organization, and the company says details of the transition will come soon. During his tenure, GitHub expanded from a simple developer tool to a global platform with more than 1 billion repositories and about 150 million developers. The company also expanded its reach to the EU, Australia, and back to the United States for FedRAMP certification, and it worked to fix smaller issues that hindered users.

The Copilot family of AI tools grew from a basic autocompletion feature into a multi model coding assistant and a broader AI platform. Copilot now has more than 20 million users, and GitHub Actions has matured into the leading continuous integration solution, powering billions of minutes per month. The broader shift to AI handled by GitHub and its ecosystem is highlighted by the introduction of Copilot Chat and Voice and the synchronization between code review and full stack app creation with GitHub Spark.

The leadership change tests how GitHub will navigate growth inside a large tech group. Keeping GitHub within CoreAI could help scale AI features quickly, but it may raise concerns about independence and product direction among developers who prize openness and control over their tools. A smooth transition and clear governance will matter to maintain trust in GitHub’s open source community and customer base.

The move comes as GitHub cements its role in the AI era. The company argues that its tools empower a billion developers and a vast ecosystem of AI agents, not just a few corporate customers. How the next leader balances experimentation with reliability will shape GitHub’s ability to stay community aligned while leveraging the scale of a major tech company.

Highlights

The next chapter will test how far developer momentum travels in an AI powered era.