OpenAI has lost another top executive, and the timing is notable: this individual was responsible for executing the company's data center strategy, a cornerstone of its ambitious AI infrastructure plans.
Chris Malone, OpenAI's former head of data centers, left the company last week, according to the Wall Street Journal. Malone, who spent nearly five years at Meta and more than a decade at Google before joining OpenAI in March 2025, had a relatively short tenure of just over a year. His departure comes amid a broader wave of senior leadership changes at the company, with at least 13 executives leaving in 2026 alone.
A Key Player in the Stargate Project
Malone joined OpenAI shortly after the launch of the Stargate Project, a $500 billion data center initiative backed by the Trump administration to develop AI infrastructure across the United States. OpenAI, alongside Oracle, Nvidia, SoftBank, and Microsoft, is a key partner in this effort. Given the industry-wide frenzy over AI infrastructure buildouts, data center strategy has become one of the most closely watched roles at any AI lab, making turnover in that position particularly surprising.
Reasons for Departure Remain Unclear
The exact reasons for Malone's exit are not fully clear. In a statement to TechCrunch, OpenAI said it had "recently reorganized" its infrastructure organization "to support the scale and pace of our work," adding that it has "a strong, deeply experienced data center team in place, with clear leadership and the technical expertise to execute our plans." According to the WSJ, as part of this reorganization, Malone stopped reporting directly to OpenAI President Greg Brockman and began reporting to Vice President Sachin Katti, who took over leadership of the group.
Several other executives are now overseeing OpenAI's data center strategy, including Uday Ruddarraju (leading the data center team), Brent Mayo (leading the build and delivery program), and Spas Lazarov (leading all data center engineering, with deep experience in the data center and energy industries).
Part of a Broader Leadership Exodus
Malone's departure is not an isolated incident. He joins a growing list of senior executives who have left OpenAI in 2026, a trend that raises questions about internal stability. According to a recent tally by Business Insider, at least 13 executives have left the company this year, with several departing in just the last month. These are not junior employees; they occupy some of the most senior roles at the company.
Two weeks ago, OpenAI replaced its chief revenue officer, Denise Dresser, after only eight months in the role. Two days before that announcement, the company lost Brad Lightcap, its longtime chief operating officer, who said he would be "starting something new" without providing further details. About a month earlier, Fidji Simo, the company's de facto second-in-command (as product and business chief reporting directly to CEO Sam Altman), stepped down to recover from a chronic illness, though she remains in an advisory role.
This exodus of top talent underscores the intense pressures and rapid evolution at OpenAI, which is navigating both unprecedented growth and strategic pivots in a highly competitive AI landscape. As the company continues to scale its infrastructure and enterprise business, the stability of its leadership team will be crucial to sustaining momentum into 2026 and beyond.
via TechCrunch AI