OpenAI’s Data-Center Chief Has Reportedly Left — Executive Exodus Grows Ahead Of Planned IPO

• Malone’s departure comes as OpenAI works toward a potential IPO by 2027.
• He joined OpenAI in March 2025 after leading data-center strategy at Meta and previously working on data-center technology at Google.
• Several other senior executives have also left the company in recent weeks.

OpenAI’s head of data centers, Chris Malone, has reportedly left the company as the artificial intelligence firm works toward an IPO and ramps up spending on computing power. Malone’s departure comes amid a string of recent high-level executive exits and as OpenAI doubles down on securing data-center capacity.

Senior Executive Exits Mount Ahead Of OpenAI IPO

Malone left OpenAI last week, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. His departure comes amid a broader exodus at the company, which is working toward an IPO and racing to catch up to rival Anthropic in sales to business customers.

Last week, OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar told staff during an internal meeting that the company is set to become a public entity by 2027, with the potential to debut even earlier if growth accelerates.

In recent weeks, Chief Revenue Officer Denise Dresser, Chief Operating Officer Brad Lightcap, and Fidji Simo, who served as second-in-command to Chief Executive Sam Altman, have all left, stated the WSJ report.

OpenAI Revives Internal Data-Center Push

Malone had joined OpenAI as head of data centers in March 2025, shortly after the company announced Stargate, an effort with Oracle and SoftBank to build data centers to meet its growing computing needs.

The Stargate effort got off to a rocky start, and OpenAI shifted toward signing deals with cloud providers rather than developing facilities itself.

OpenAI is now reviving some of its internal data-center efforts through projects in which it leases entire facilities, rather than simply renting chips from cloud providers. But other leaders are heading that effort, not Malone, according to the WSJ report.

OpenAI Ramps Up Compute Spending

Malone’s departure comes as OpenAI doubles 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, WSJ 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.

Before joining OpenAI, Malone was an engineer at Meta, where he led the firm’s data-center strategy. Prior to that, he was an engineer and senior director at Google, focused on data center technology.

OpenAI: Stocktwits Retail Sentiment

Retail sentiment on Stocktwits for OpenAI was ‘bullish’ at the time of writing on Tuesday.

Also See: DT Stock Gains After Morgan Stanley Upgrade — Why Brokerage Says Dynatrace Could Be An AI Boom Winner

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com.