GitHub CEO to step down by end of year, after which platform will be integrated into Microsoft CoreAI

Starting in 2026, the online code collaboration platform GitHub will be fully integrated into Microsoft's organizational structure, according to current GitHub CEO Thomas Domke (via ArsTechnica), who announced his decision to leave the company at the end of 2025 to "become a founder again." Domke is the platform's second CEO , following Nat Friedman, who left his position at the end of 2021.

The startup GitHub, acquired by Microsoft in 2018 for $7.5 billion, has until now maintained a certain autonomy, having a separate management team.

The platform will now be part of a new division, CoreAI, created by Microsoft in January 2025. Axios reports that the company does not plan to appoint a new CEO for GitHub — instead, the leadership team will report to several CoreAI executives.

The integration of GitHub into CoreAI makes sense given the development of GitHub Copilot, an AI-powered programming assistant. Since its launch in 2021, Microsoft has been actively improving the tool, adding support for new language models and agents that execute user queries in the background.

It is currently unknown how the changes in governance structure will affect the operation of GitHub or its products.