OpenAI Loses Data Center Chief as Executive Exits Continue

Chris Malone, the executive overseeing OpenAI's data center strategy, left the company last week, marking another high-profile departure as the artificial intelligence lab navigates a period of significant leadership turnover and massive infrastructure expansion. His exit was first reported by the Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch on August 25. Malone, who joined OpenAI in March 2025 after senior roles at Meta and Google, was responsible for the physical execution of the company's computing capacity plans. His departure adds to a pattern of senior exits in 2026, with sources counting at least 13.