OpenAI Taps Ex-xAI Infra Lead Uday Ruddarraju to Run Compute as Sachin Katti Exits Next Month

OpenAI shook up its compute leadership for the second time this year, naming Uday Ruddarraju — formerly head of infrastructure engineering at xAI, who joined OpenAI last July and was promoted to CTO of Compute in July 2026 — to run its data center and infrastructure businesses. Sachin Katti, who came from Intel in November 2025 and inherited the Stargate effort in March, will depart next month after about a year and stay on as an adviser. Katti had been steering OpenAI's compute buildout — projected to total roughly $750B through 2030, up from an earlier $600B estimate.