Sachin Katti, head of infrastructure at OpenAI, announced Wednesday that he is leaving his role at the artificial intelligence company after about a year.
“I have decided to build something new,” Katti said in a LinkedIn post, adding that he will continue to support OpenAI as an advisor beyond his last day of work on November 15. Uday Rudaraj, who previously served as OpenAI’s CTO of computing, will succeed Katti and lead the company’s entire computing organization, a spokesperson said.
“Building an AI infrastructure at this scale has given us incredible visibility into all aspects of the computing world, from silicon and systems to data centers, energy, supply chain, finance, and the economics of AI,” Katti wrote. “I am extremely proud of what our teams have achieved together and are grateful to our partners who helped make it possible.”
OpenAI’s compute organization is critical to its overall strategy. You will be responsible for developing the company’s infrastructure roadmap and ensuring that models are trained and ready for delivery. OpenAI aims to bring total computing spending to approximately $600 billion by 2030 and is involved in large multi-billion dollar data center projects in states such as Ohio, Texas and Georgia.
The latest leadership change comes at a tense time for U.S. AI infrastructure, with a growing backlash against data centers due to concerns about noise, electricity costs and water consumption. The issue has become a flashpoint in the upcoming midterm elections, with Republican and Democratic candidates campaigning against the facility.
“I am proud of what we have built and have full confidence in Uday and the team to take it forward,” Katti said in a statement. “I’m an architect at heart, so I’m looking forward to building something new.”
According to LinkedIn, Ruddarraju joined OpenAI in July of last year. He previously served as head of infrastructure engineering at Elon Musk’s xAI, which was acquired. space x At the beginning of this year.
Katti’s departure is the latest in a string of executive departures at OpenAI this year. In July, OpenAI’s head of product and business Fiji Simo said he was moving into an advisory role to focus on recovery after a “severe exacerbation of chronic disease.” The following month, longtime OpenAI executive Brad Lightcap and revenue chief Dennis Dresser also left the company.
OpenAI President Greg Brockman told CNBC at the time that he didn’t think the wave of departures was unusual for a young company. He said that because of the attention OpenAI is receiving, “every starting point will be scrutinized in a different way.”
“There have been different eras and different leaders in place,” Brockman said. “I’m a constant, and Sam (Altman) is a constant. I think we’re stronger because of that resiliency and diversity.”
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