OpenAI has named Indian American executive Uday Ruddarraju to lead its infrastructure and computing operations.
OpenAI has appointed Uday Ruddarraju to lead its infrastructure and computing operations, succeeding Sachin Katti, who is transitioning away from his leadership role after about a year at the artificial intelligence company.
Ruddarraju joined OpenAI in July 2025 after working at Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, where he led infrastructure engineering. He was appointed OpenAI's chief technology officer for compute in July 2026.
In his expanded role, he will oversee the company's infrastructure and computing operations, including efforts to expand data center capacity.
Katti will transition out of his current position over the coming weeks and remain an adviser to OpenAI, according to the report.
READ: Sachin Katti leaving OpenAI "to build something new" (October 15, 2026)
Katti joined the company in November 2025 after serving as chief technology and AI officer at Intel. At OpenAI, his work included overseeing major computing infrastructure initiatives and commercial partnerships.
The leadership change comes as OpenAI seeks to secure the computing resources required to train and operate its AI models. CEO Sam Altman has said the company expects to spend trillions of dollars on the physical infrastructure needed to develop AI systems and support their wider adoption.
Ruddarraju said he expects the transition to proceed smoothly because of his previous involvement with the engineering, construction and technical teams responsible for infrastructure development. He has also worked with leaders at OpenAI's partners, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Katti's strategy and business teams are expected to remain in their positions, according to Ruddarraju, providing continuity during the transition.
"Sachin has done an incredible job maintaining the commercial partnerships," Ruddarraju said. He added that he would devote more time to commercial relationships.
READ: Indian American scientist wins top agricultural prize (September 7, 2026)
During Katti's tenure, OpenAI pursued several large-scale data center projects, including an 8-gigawatt project in Ohio involving SB Energy and Nvidia, as well as a facility in Georgia that the company described as its first data center site designed and led by OpenAI.
"I'm proud of what we've built and have total confidence in Uday and the team to carry it forward," Katti said in a statement. He added that he was looking forward to building something new.
The appointment follows other departures from OpenAI's infrastructure organization. Chris Malone, an executive involved in the company's data center expansion, left in August. Peter Hoeschele, who played a significant role in the Stargate infrastructure initiative, also departed for Meta Platforms earlier this year, alongside two colleagues.
Ruddarraju's appointment places him in charge of a central part of OpenAI's infrastructure strategy as the company continues work to expand its computing capacity.