OpenAI appoints new compute chief: Indian-origin Uday Ruddarraju takes charge of data centers and compute push

OpenAI has appointed former xAI executive Uday Ruddarraju as infrastructure and computing chief, replacing Sachin Katti. Ruddarraju joined OpenAI in 2025 and became its chief technology officer for compute in July 2026. In the new role, he will oversee the infrastructure and computing resources OpenAI needs to develop and run its AI models, including expanding data centre capacity.

Katti, who previously led the infrastructure unit, will step away from the role over the coming weeks, but will remain in the company as an adviser. For Ruddarraju, the role comes with huge responsibility, as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has planned to spend trillions of dollars to scale physical infrastructure.

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Furthermore, the company has been experiencing several leadership exits in its data centre and infrastructure teams. There were multiple senior departures in recent months, including Chris Malone in August and Peter Hoeschele, who was involved in the Stargate project. Hence, OpenAI is reshuffling leadership responsibilities across its infrastructure operations while continuing to build out its data centre network.

However, Ruddarraju brings an exceptional career with more than a decade of experience in the field. He has worked with companies like eBay, xAI, Robinhood, and now OpenAI. His early education includes a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from the Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT) in Hyderabad, India. He has also completed an internship at Amazon Web Services (AWS) and pursued further education in the United States, earning a Master of Science in Computer from the University of Minnesota.

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In his previous role, Ruddarraju worked closely with the infrastructure group's engineering, construction and technical teams. Hence, he already understands how these teams work and how OpenAI's infrastructure projects are managed, so he expects to take over the leadership responsibilities without major disruption.

In a statement, Katti said, “I’m proud of what we’ve built and have total confidence in Uday and the team to carry it forward.”

“I’m looking forward to building something new,” he added.