GoKawiilOpenAI's head of data centers Chris Malone departs amid infrastructure reorganization
Chris Malone, who led OpenAI's data center strategy after joining from Meta and Google in March 2024, has left the company. OpenAI confirmed it recently restructured its infrastructure organization, shifting oversight so that Malone no longer reported to President Greg Brockman but instead to VP Sachin Katti before his exit. The company says several other executives, including Uday Ruddarraju, Brent Mayo and Spas Lazarov, remain in charge of its data center efforts.
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Data center strategy sits at the core of OpenAI's ability to scale compute for its models, and losing the executive who ran it comes just as the company is deeply tied to the $500 billion Stargate Project alongside Oracle, Nvidia, SoftBank and Microsoft. Malone's exit is the latest in a pattern of high-profile departures, raising questions about internal stability even as OpenAI races to expand physical infrastructure to meet surging AI demand.
- Chris Malone, OpenAI's data center chief since March 2024, has left the company
- OpenAI recently reorganized its infrastructure team, shifting reporting lines away from Greg Brockman to VP Sachin Katti
- The departure adds to a growing list of executive exits at OpenAI during a critical infrastructure buildout tied to the Stargate Project
Empire of AI by Karen Hao (hardcover) — If OpenAI's executive churn and its massive data center ambitions have you curious about what's driving the company, Karen Hao's Empire of AI digs into the people, money and infrastructure behind the AI boom. It's a great companion read for anyone following the Stargate buildout and the leadership shuffles behind it.
See Empire of AI by Karen Hao (hardcover) on Amazon → Affiliate link — we may earn a commission on purchases, at no extra cost to you. Product picked by AI based on this article; it is not a tested recommendation.Source: techcrunch.com — Lucas Ropek, 2026-08-26
Published there as: “OpenAI loses a top data center exec, as stream of high-profile departures continues”
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