GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke is stepping down, as Microsoft shifts the platform’s leadership under its Core AI division, further integrating the developer hub into its broader AI strategy.
“After nearly four years as CEO, I’m leaving GitHub to become a startup founder again,” Dohmke wrote on LinkedIn on Aug 11.
‘The most thriving market in AI’
Dohmke joined GitHub in 2021 as vice president of strategic programs before being promoted to CEO by November of that year. Prior to his stint at GitHub, Dohmke worked for Microsoft, which acquired GitHub in 2018.
“With more than 1B repos and forks, 150M+ developers, and Copilot continuing to lead the most thriving market in AI with 20M users and counting, GitHub has never been stronger than it is today,” Dohmke wrote on Linkedin.
“From building mobile developer tools, to running the acquisition of GitHub alongside Nat Friedman, to becoming GitHub’s CEO and guiding us into the age of Copilot and AI, it has been the ride of a lifetime,” he wrote in an internal farewell letter.
His tenure at GitHub will come to a close at the end of 2025.
Microsoft AI leaders will steer GitHub
Microsoft will not appoint a new CEO for GitHub, according to a report from Axios; instead, AI platform VP Asha Sharma and Developer Division Head Julia Liuson will assume leadership responsibilities.
GitHub serves as a pipeline for developers into Microsoft’s Windows and Azure ecosystems. Meanwhile, its AI-powered Copilot coding assistant aligns with Microsoft’s broader goal to expand generative AI assistants across multiple domains, including software development. The Core AI team also oversees the end-to-end Copilot app stack.
Competitors to GitHub with similar AI capabilities include Cursor, Google’s coding AI offerings in Visual Studio Code, and more.
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