Sachin Katti, OpenAI's infrastructure and compute lead, announced on October 14 that he is departing after roughly a year at the company, with a last day set for Nov. 151. 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.
Katti said in a post on LinkedIn that he "decided to move on to build something new" and will continue supporting OpenAI as an advisor. "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.
The departure comes as OpenAI plans to spend around $750 billion on computing power through 2030, according to the Wall Street Journal2. ANALYSIS The magnitude of that spending commitment makes the infrastructure leadership transition consequential: whoever runs the compute organization oversees one of the largest capital-deployment programs in the technology sector.
Ruddarraju has been operating as CTO of compute inside OpenAI prior to this promotion.
ANALYSIS Katti's exit adds to senior-level turnover at OpenAI, though his shift to an advisory role and public praise for the team suggest an amicable transition rather than a rupture.