On the evening of August 11th local time, Thomas Domke, CEO of Microsoft's GitHub, announced in an internal letter that he will step down as CEO at the end of 2025 to embark on a new entrepreneurial journey. The leader who once led GitHub into the AI era admitted that his startup DNA always called him back to a founding role.
Looking back on his career, Domke's journey has been full of twists and turns. More than a decade ago, after his mobile development tool startup was acquired by Microsoft, he and his family moved to the United States. He was deeply involved in the GitHub acquisition and took over as CEO in 2021. Under his leadership, GitHub launched the revolutionary Copilot AI programming assistant, driving the number of AI projects on the platform to double within a year. Today, GitHub boasts one billion code repositories and 150 million developers, making it the world's largest developer ecosystem.
Domke will help integrate GitHub into Microsoft's newly formed CoreAI team, led by former Meta executive Jay Parikh, and integrating Microsoft's core AI resources. Notably, GitHub will no longer have an independent CEO position; its management will report directly to CoreAI. This adjustment highlights Microsoft's emphasis on its AI strategy—deeply integrating the developer ecosystem with the underlying technology platform.
Dohmke described his departure as "an inevitable choice born of the startup soul." In his letter, he specifically thanked his colleagues for their "remarkable journey from acquisition to the AI revolution." The industry is closely watching his next move. Analysts suggest that with his experience integrating developer tools and AI, his next project is likely to focus on next-generation programming productivity tools. With the end-of-year transition approaching, this career transition may yet again reshape the tech industry landscape.
