Open AI data center chief leaves the company as exec exodus continues | Tech Radar
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Open AI data center chief leaves the company as exec exodus continues
The move comes as Open AI had already essentially dismantled his job across three different executives
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Chris Malone, Open AI's head of data centers, has left after seventeen months, with the company confirming the exit but giving no reason
His responsibilities had already been split before he went, with his reporting line moved to VP Sachin Katti and the job now spread across three executives plus an unnamed CTO for computing capacity
The move comes as Open AI is reportedly reviving plans to lease entire facilities rather than build them, a shift from construction to procurement
Chris Malone, the executive who ran Open AI's data center buildout, has left the company. The Wall Street Journal broke the story last week, and an Open AI spokesperson confirmed the departure to Bloomberg the same day.
Neither Open AI nor Malone has given a reason for his departure or his next destination, and a message from Bloomberg to his Linked In account received no reply.
The top-level executive joined the company in March 2025, against the backdrop of Open AI's Stargate announcement in January of the same year, a commitment to invest $500 billion in 10 gigawatts of US AI infrastructure over four years alongside Soft Bank, Oracle and MGX.
A job cannibalized by changing priorities at the helm?
With a total tenure of 17 months, a relatively short duration for the job, Malone arrived at a time when the job was incredibly demanding, as Open AI fended off competition from rival Anthropic, a resurgent Google with its Gemini offerings, and what can perhaps be described as a love-hate relationship with Microsoft.
His exit may have been written on the wall weeks ago, according to the Wall Street Journal, which noted that Malone stopped reporting to Open AI president Greg Brockman and began reporting to vice president Sachin Katti, who took over leadership of the group.
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Open AI has since appointed a chief technology officer to lead computing capacity, though it has not publicly named that person. Responsibility for what Malone did is now spread across at least three people: Uday Ruddarraju leads the data center team, Brent Mayo runs the build-and-delivery program, and Spas Lazarov, who came from the data center and energy industries, leads data center engineering.
All of this indicates it wasn't a sudden vacancy to fill, but one that had been on the cards for some time. This comes as reports indicate Open AI is reviving data center initiatives involving leasing entire facilities, with others leading that effort. This would mark a significant shift from its initial plans to get involved in the building side of the business, which it seems to have focused less on lately, and a major strategic shift in how the organization plans to operate in the future.
Open AI's own narrative points in the same direction, without conceding much, when it told Tech Crunch it had "recently reorganized" its "infrastructure organization to support the scale and pace of our work," adding that it retains a strong and deeply experienced data center team with clear leadership. It, however, has not addressed Malone's exit directly.
The move is not isolated, as Open AI continues to lose high-level executives; Business Insider tallied thirteen senior departures at Open AI in 2026 as of August 21, and Malone is the fourteenth to leave the company to date. The Next Web counts seven senior departures or replacements since April alone.
Malone is also among the least senior names on those lists by title. The Head of data centers is not a named C-suite role, and after the reorganization, he reported to a vice president rather than sitting alongside a chief operating officer or a chief revenue officer for Open AI.
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Axios reported earlier this month that Open AI's recent changes are "driven by strategy more than the revolving door" that characterizes the wider AI talent market, with Open AI president Brockman deliberately building a leadership team to compete in the enterprise space. Brockman has denied this, telling the Journal that the spotlight on his company means "every departure gets scrutinized in a way that it doesn't otherwise."
The scrutiny comes with the ambitions Open AI currently harbors, many of which seriously affect its direct partners, including Nvidia, AMD, and Microsoft. CNBC reports Open AI is targeting roughly
The move comes at a time when the company is getting ready for an IPO that would inject fresh cash while also allowing employees to essentially cash in on their equity of what is one of the world's most valuable startups: Open AI filed confidentially with the SEC in June, and chief financial officer Sarah Friar told staff last week the company will go public in 2027 or sooner, having originally targeted this year.
An exodus of key employees, including Malone, might just be a strategic change in how the company operates or otherwise, but given the sheer scale of the company involved and the potential consequences of such moves, the scrutiny is well-warranted in an industry that has otherwise progressed relatively unchecked in the name of progress over the past few years.
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