OpenAI’s head of data centers, Chris Malone, has left the company, adding to a wave of senior executive departures at the artificial intelligence lab as it prepares for a blockbuster initial public offering.

Malone joined OpenAI in March 2025 after working on data center infrastructure as a distinguished engineer at both Meta and Google, according to his LinkedIn profile. He helped oversee the company’s ambitious infrastructure plans, which include a target to spend roughly $600 billion on compute by 2030.

“We recently reorganized our infrastructure organization to support the scale and pace of our work,” an OpenAI spokesperson said in a statement. “We have a strong, deeply experienced data center team in place, with clear leadership and the technical expertise to execute our plans.”

Malone’s departure comes during a particularly tense moment for AI infrastructure in the United States, where backlash against data centers is mounting rapidly. The National Republican Senatorial Committee warned last week that data centers have become a “sleeper issue” for the entire midterm election cycle, according to a memo obtained by CNBC.

A Revolving Door in the C-Suite

Malone’s exit is the latest in a string of high-profile departures that has surprised some investors. Earlier this month, OpenAI’s revenue chief, Denise Dresser, suddenly announced she would be leaving the company after less than a year in her role. Her exit came just days after Brad Lightcap, another longtime executive, said he was ending an eight-year run at OpenAI to “start something new.”

In addition to Dresser and Lightcap, Fidji Simo, who had been OpenAI’s product and business chief, announced last month that she would step down from her role to focus on managing a chronic illness. Four other executives left the company in April.

The Wall Street Journal was first to report Malone’s departure. According to that report, Malone had originally reported directly to President Greg Brockman, but after a reorganization of the infrastructure group, his unit was moved under Vice President Sachin Katti. Going forward, OpenAI’s data center operations are expected to be overseen by Uday Rudaraju, chief technology officer for compute capacity, and Brent Mayo, among others.

Infrastructure Strategy in Flux

Malone joined OpenAI shortly after the announcement of Stargate, a large-scale data center buildout plan championed by the Trump administration involving partners including Oracle, SoftBank, Nvidia, and Microsoft. However, the initiative faced difficulties from the early stages in areas such as partnerships and planning, and OpenAI subsequently shifted its infrastructure strategy toward leasing arrangements with cloud providers.

The company has recently resumed building some of its own data center capacity through projects in which it leases entire facilities rather than simply renting chips from cloud providers. But according to the Journal, other leaders are heading that effort, not Malone.

OpenAI has been doubling down on securing computing capacity. The company raised its projected spending on computing power to around $750 billion through 2030, up from roughly $600 billion, the Journal reported in July. Earlier this month, OpenAI also signed a data-center lease in Ohio with SoftBank subsidiary SB Energy, which is partly backed by an Nvidia financial guarantee.

IPO Timeline Remains on Track

The executive churn comes as OpenAI works to justify its $852 billion valuation ahead of what is expected to be a massive IPO. The company confidentially filed its prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Commission in June, but it has not officially shared when it plans to debut.

OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar told employees in an all-hands meeting this month that OpenAI “will be a public company in 2027.”

OpenAI President Greg Brockman brushed off concerns about the executive shakeups last week, telling CNBC in an interview that he doesn’t think the wave of exits is “actually that atypical.”

“I actually think that the difference between OpenAI and other organizations is that we are so much in the spotlight, so every departure gets scrutinized in a way that it doesn’t otherwise,” Brockman said.

Below is a summary of key executive departures at OpenAI in 2026:

ExecutiveFormer RoleDeparture TimingChris MaloneHead of Data CentersAugust 2026Denise DresserChief Revenue OfficerAugust 2026Brad LightcapChief Operating OfficerAugust 2026Fidji SimoProduct and Business ChiefJuly 2026Four other executivesVarious senior rolesApril 2026

Note: Departure timing reflects when exits were publicly reported; some executives may have left earlier.

The flood of outgoing executives has certainly raised questions, especially as the company undergoes the kind of reputational vetting that comes with any looming listing. Concerns have arisen that OpenAI may be overvalued and that its profitability does not match the gargantuan investments being made in the lab.