OpenAI Data Center Chief Exits Amid Executive Departure Wave
OpenAI has lost Chris Malone, its head of data centers, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal cited by TechCrunch. Malone left the company last week after a roughly year and a half tenure that began in March of last year, following stints of nearly five years at Meta and more than a decade at Google.
Malone joined OpenAI shortly after the launch of the Stargate Project, a data center initiative backed by the Trump administration in which OpenAI participates alongside Oracle, Nvidia, SoftBank and Microsoft. The reason for his exit was not disclosed. Per the Journal, Malone had stopped reporting directly to OpenAI president Greg Brockman as part of a reorganization and began reporting to OpenAI vice president Sachin Katti, who now leads the infrastructure group.
In a statement to TechCrunch, OpenAI said it had recently reorganized its infrastructure organization to support the scale and pace of its work, adding that it has a strong, experienced data center team with clear leadership. Other executives overseeing data center strategy include Uday Ruddarraju, Brent Mayo and Spas Lazarov.
Malone’s exit is the latest in a string of more than a dozen executive departures at OpenAI this year, a tally TechCrunch attributes to Business Insider at 13. Recent exits include chief revenue officer Denise Dresser, longtime chief operating officer Brad Lightcap, and product and business chief Fidji Simo, who stepped back for health reasons but remains as an advisor. The company’s safety functions have also seen turnover, including the departure of head of ethics Chloe Bakalar and the reported disbanding of its preparedness team.
Brockman has said the scrutiny stems from intense public attention on the company. The churn comes as OpenAI’s IPO, once expected this year, has reportedly been pushed to 2027, alongside concerns about valuation and profitability.
Based on reporting by techcrunch.com.
