Meet Google executive ‘responsible’ for Sam Altman sending ‘Code Red’ to OpenAI employees

Josh Woodward isn’t a household name in Silicon Valley, but the 42-year-old Google veteran has accomplished what seemed impossible just months ago—he’s made the world’s most powerful AI company sweat. The executive leading Google’s Gemini app triggered such alarm at OpenAI that CEO Sam Altman declared an internal “code red” in early December, forcing the startup to abandon lucrative projects and scramble to defend its eroding market position.Woodward’s impact has been devastating for OpenAI. Since taking charge of the Gemini app in April while simultaneously running Google Labs, he’s orchestrated a comeback that’s transformed Google from AI afterthought to existential threat. His team’s viral Nano Banana image generator crashed Google’s own infrastructure in August, generating so much traffic that the company’s custom AI chips nearly “melted,” according to CNBC reports from a November all-hands meeting.