In an aerial view, the Stargate Oracle AI data center campus is seen on August 26, 2026 in Abilene, Texas.
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OpenAI's infrastructure lead, Sachin Katti, announced on Wednesday that he is departing his role after roughly a year at the artificial intelligence company.
Katti said in a post on LinkedIn that he "decided to move on to build something new," and he'll continue to support OpenAI as an advisor after his last day on Nov. 15. Uday Ruddarraju, who has been serving as OpenAI's CTO of compute, will replace Katti and lead the company's overall compute organization, according to a spokesperson.
"Building AI infrastructure at this scale has given me an incredible view into every dimension of the compute world, from silicon and systems to datacenters, energy, supply chains, financing, and the economics of AI," Katti wrote. "I'm enormously proud of what our teams accomplished together and grateful to the partners who helped make it possible."
OpenAI's compute organization is crucial to its overall strategy; it's tasked with developing the company's infrastructure roadmap and ensuring that it can train and serve its models. OpenAI is targeting roughly $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030, and it's involved with massive, multi-billion-dollar data center projects in states like Ohio, Texas and Georgia.
The latest leadership shakeup lands during a tense moment for AI infrastructure in the U.S., where backlash against data centers has mounted over concerns about noise, electricity rates and water consumption. The issue has become a flashpoint in the upcoming midterm elections, where both Republican and Democratic candidates have campaigned against the facilities.
"I'm proud of what we've built and have total confidence in Uday and the team to carry it forward," Katti said in a statement. "I'm a builder at heart, and I'm looking forward to building something new."
Ruddarraju joined OpenAI in July of last year, according to his LinkedIn. He previously served as the head of infrastructure engineering at Elon Musk's xAI, which was acquired by SpaceX earlier this year.
Katti's exit is the latest in a string of executive departures at OpenAI this year. In July, Fidji Simo, OpenAI's product and business chief, said she would move into an advisory role to focus on recovery after a "severe exacerbation of a chronic illness." The following month, Brad Lightcap, a longtime OpenAI executive, and Denise Dresser, who served as revenue chief, also left the company.
OpenAI President Greg Brockman told CNBC at the time that he doesn't believe the wave of departures is atypical for a young company. He said since OpenAI is in the spotlight, "every departure gets scrutinized in a way that it doesn't otherwise."
"There have been different eras where we have different sets of, of leaders in place," Brockman said. "I'm a constant, Sam [Altman] is a constant, and I think that we are stronger because of that resilience and diversity."
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