Meet Uday Ruddaraju, Hyderabad grad picked to lead OpenAI data centres

OpenAI has appointed Uday Ruddarraju to lead its data centre and computing infrastructure operations as Sachin Katti prepares to step down from the role over the next few weeks. Ruddarraju, who joined OpenAI in 2025, will now oversee the computing capacity and infrastructure that OpenAI needs to develop and run its artificial intelligence models. Katti will remain with OpenAI as an adviser.While Uday Ruddarraju will now lead the data centre and computing operations at OpenAI, one of Silicon Valley’s leading AI companies, his journey to the role began in Hyderabad, India. An engineering graduate from Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT), he built his career across eBay and Robinhood before joining Elon Musk’s xAI in 2024. Now, he will oversee the computing infrastructure that powers OpenAI’s AI ambitions. From Hyderabad to Silicon ValleyRuddarraju’s journey began with a computer science degree from Hyderabad’s Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT). After graduating, he completed a few internships, including one as a software engineering intern at Amazon, before moving to the US for a master’s degree in computer science at the University of Minnesota.His first full-time role came in 2013, when he joined eBay as a software engineer working on cloud infrastructure. Over the next five years, he worked his way up to become a senior member of technical staff and technical lead for cloud and platforms. The role gave him experience in building and managing the cloud systems behind one of the world’s largest e-commerce platforms. In 2018, Ruddarraju moved to Robinhood as a staff software engineer. He spent nearly six years at the financial technology company, rising to become senior director of engineering and head of infrastructure. During this time, he led infrastructure teams as Robinhood expanded and its user base grew.Building computing systems for AIIn 2024, Ruddarraju joined Elon Musk’s xAI as head of infrastructure engineering, where he worked on building the large-scale computing systems needed to train AI models, including those powering the Grok chatbot. He joined OpenAI in July 2025 as head of compute and infrastructure and was promoted to chief technology officer for compute in July 2026. Now, with Sachin Katti preparing to step down, Ruddarraju will take charge of OpenAI’s infrastructure and compute businesses, overseeing the company’s efforts to expand its data centre capacity and secure the computing power needed to develop and run advanced AI models.Katti, who joined OpenAI from Intel in November 2025, oversaw several major infrastructure projects, including an 8-gigawatt project in Ohio involving SB Energy and Nvidia. He also worked on a data centre in Georgia that became the first to be designed and led by OpenAI. Katti will move into an advisory role, while OpenAI’s GPT-Infra initiative, which uses its AI models to help develop semiconductors and infrastructure, will come under chip chief Richard Ho.What will Uday Ruddarraju do at OpenAI?Meanwhile, Ruddarraju will now report to OpenAI president Greg Brockman and oversee data centre projects, infrastructure engineering and relationships with the company’s commercial partners. The role also makes him one of the key figures to hold responsibility for the business side of OpenAI’s expanding infrastructure operations.Speaking about the leadership transition, Ruddarraju told Bloomberg that he expects the handover to be smooth, as he has already worked with the infrastructure team’s engineering, construction and technical groups. He has also worked with executives at OpenAI’s partners, including Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.“Sachin has done an incredible job maintaining the commercial partnerships,” Ruddarraju said, adding that he would now need to spend more time on the commercial side.The big leadership shift comes as OpenAI scales up the physical infrastructure required to support its AI ambitions. With Ruddarraju taking charge, his focus will be on expanding computing capacity, overseeing infrastructure projects and maintaining partnerships that help the company build and operate its data centres.- Ends