OpenAI infrastructure and compute leader Sachin Katti says he will leave the company on November 15 to “build something new,” then continue supporting OpenAI as an advisor. Katti announced the change in a LinkedIn post on October 14, describing his time at the company as an “incredible year.” 1
CNBC reports that Uday Ruddarraju, OpenAI’s chief technology officer of compute, will replace Katti and lead the company’s overall compute organization, citing an OpenAI spokesperson. CNBC says that organization is responsible for the infrastructure roadmap needed to train and serve OpenAI’s models. 2
A handoff in a fast-growing compute operation
Katti’s role spans the physical and commercial foundations of AI systems. In his post, he described work across silicon, systems, data centers, energy, supply chains, financing, and the economics of AI. He also said the teams secured “double-digit gigawatts” of new compute capacity across several projects. That capacity figure is Katti’s own account; it was not independently verified in the announcement. 1
The transition puts Ruddarraju in charge of a function that has become central to OpenAI’s ability to expand model training and inference. CNBC reports that Ruddarraju previously led infrastructure engineering at xAI before joining OpenAI, and that he had been serving as OpenAI’s CTO of compute. 2
Katti did not identify the project he plans to build next. His post says he is proud of the infrastructure work and has confidence in Ruddarraju and the team to carry it forward. Neither his statement nor CNBC’s report announced changes to OpenAI’s existing data-center plans. 1 2
The immediate development is therefore a leadership handoff, not a disclosed change in compute strategy. Whether it brings a shift in execution or priorities remains to be seen as Ruddarraju assumes the broader remit in the coming weeks.