Hyderabad’s Uday Ruddarraju named CTO of OpenAI’s infrastructure and compute operations

Hyderabad: Do you know that a computer science graduate from Hyderabad’s Chaitanya Bharathi Institute of Technology (CBIT) is now leading as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at OpenAI’s infrastructure and compute business?

Uday Ruddarraju, who joined the Artificial Intelligence company in 2025, has been appointed to lead its infrastructure and compute operations as it expands the computing capacity required to develop and run advanced AI models. According to his LinkedIn profile, he has served as chief technology officer of compute for the past four months.

From CBIT to the United States

The appointment marks another step in Ruddarraju’s career in large-scale computing infrastructure, a field that has become central to the global race to build more capable AI systems.

Ruddarraju studied computer science at CBIT in Hyderabad before moving to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in computer science at the University of Minnesota.

His professional journey took him through several technology companies, beginning with eBay, where he worked on cloud infrastructure supporting the company’s e-commerce platforms.

In 2018, he joined financial technology company Robinhood.

Over nearly six years, he progressed through engineering roles to become senior director of engineering and head of infrastructure. His work involved building and managing the systems needed to support the company’s growing technology operations.

From Robinhood to Elon Musk’s xAI

In 2024, Ruddarraju joined xAI, Elon Musk’s AI venture, as head of infrastructure engineering. The role involved developing large-scale computing systems required to train AI models. He moved to OpenAI in 2025 to lead compute and infrastructure.

His latest appointment as CTO places him in charge of the broader infrastructure and compute business, succeeding Sachin Katti, who is expected to transition to an advisory role at OpenAI.

Growing with AI

The role comes at a time when AI companies are investing heavily in the physical infrastructure needed to train and operate their models.

This includes data centres, specialised processors, networking, storage and the systems that connect them.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has indicated that the company could invest trillions of dollars in physical infrastructure to support AI development and adoption.