OpenAI has appointed Uday Ruddaraju as Chief Technology Officer, Compute, to lead the development of the world’s largest compute infrastructure for advanced AI models.
OpenAI has announced the promotion of Uday Ruddaraju, an Indian American technology leader, to the position of Chief Technology Officer, Compute. In this role, Ruddaraju will be responsible for building the world’s largest compute infrastructure for cutting-edge AI models, including the anticipated GPT-5.6.
This strategic elevation reflects OpenAI’s commitment to enhancing its AI infrastructure amid increasing competition among major firms striving to establish extensive data center networks. Ruddaraju’s promotion is particularly significant as the demand for robust computing resources continues to grow in the rapidly evolving AI landscape.
Ruddaraju holds a Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from the Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology in Hyderabad, India, and later earned a Master of Science in Computer Science from the University of Minnesota after relocating to the United States.
Having led OpenAI’s compute and infrastructure initiatives for the past year, Ruddaraju shared his excitement about his new role on LinkedIn. He expressed gratitude for the rewarding experiences during his first year at the company, highlighting the Compute team’s relentless efforts to quickly and reliably bring capacity online.
“Our Compute team has worked relentlessly to bring capacity online quickly and reliably, while doing the deep systems across compute, network and storage, and ML work needed to train frontier models like GPT-5.6,” Ruddaraju stated.
He emphasized that as OpenAI scales its operations, the complexity of the challenges it faces will increase, necessitating ongoing innovation across all layers of the technology stack. “We’re on a mission to build the world’s largest compute footprint so frontier AI can reach everyone and every workflow. We have a very exciting compute ramp and roadmap coming up,” he added.
Ruddaraju’s team is focused on rapidly deploying the necessary capacity and constructing the compute, networking, storage, and machine learning systems essential for training advanced AI models. OpenAI aims to broaden access to frontier AI, making it available to a wider user base and diverse workflows by significantly expanding its compute resources.
The company has laid out an ambitious roadmap for compute expansion and is actively seeking talent in various fields, including distributed systems, hardware, manufacturing, and data center engineering.
Before joining OpenAI in July 2025 as Head of Compute and Infrastructure, Ruddaraju held leadership roles at xAI and served as Head of Infrastructure Engineering from June 2024 to July 2025. His professional background also includes nearly six years at Robinhood, where he rose to the position of Senior Director of Engineering and Head of Infrastructure, as well as over five years at eBay, where he worked in various software engineering roles focused on cloud and platforms.
Ruddaraju’s appointment as CTO marks a significant step for OpenAI as it continues to push the boundaries of AI technology and infrastructure development, positioning itself as a leader in the competitive landscape of artificial intelligence.
According to The American Bazaar, Ruddaraju’s leadership will be crucial as OpenAI embarks on this ambitious journey to enhance its computing capabilities.