xAI’s Head of Infrastructure Engineering resigns, joins OpenAI

The Head of Infrastructure Engineering, Uday Ruddarraju of xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, announced his resignation, marking the end of his tenure with the company after being in the position for just over a year.

In a post on X on Tuesday, Ruddarraju reflected on his journey at xAI, during which he played a pivotal role in the development of Colossus, a massive supercomputer comprising over 200,000 GPUs, as well as training Grok 3, xAI’s latest AI model.

“After an unforgettable ride, I’ve decided to move on from xAI and yesterday was my last day. When I first joined, I thought everyone was absolutely nuts for thinking we could deploy 100K GPUs in 4 months, especially without a fully functioning site. Watching us go and double that, and most importantly successfully train Grok 3, made me incredibly proud… and very happy to be wrong,” Ruddarraju stated.

Expressing gratitude to xAI founder Elon Musk and the team, Ruddarraju said, “Thank you Elon Musk and everyone at xAI for the rare opportunity to help build something truly foundational with Colossus. It was a privilege to be part of a mission this bold and to see from the inside what relentless focus and execution really look like. Reporting to Elon and learning directly from him was definitely the best part about working at xAI.”

“Special thanks to everyone on the infrastructure team who met impossible expectations, and the entire research team for your partnership throughout. You’re the best! I am sure building Colossus and training Grok 3 are definitely highlights of my career I will remember forever,” he added.

Following his departure, Ruddarraju joined OpenAI, an AI research and deployment company. His joining OpenAI was announced by the President and Co-Founder, Greg Brockman, who, in a post on X, stated, “welcome david lau, mike dalton, uday ruddarraju, and angela fan!”

Ruddarraju also confirmed his joining OpenAI after he reposted Brockman’s post, quoting, “Excited to join you, Greg Brockman!”

Days after Ruddarraju tendered his resignation, Elon Musk-owned social media platform X’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, also announced her decision to step down from her role after two years.

While announcing her decision on X, Yaccarino expressed gratitude to Musk for giving her the responsibility of protecting free speech and “transforming X into the Everything App.”

She joined X, then known as Twitter, in 2023, about six months after Musk’s takeover of the social media platform. Prior to joining X, she served as the chair of NBCUniversal Media’s global advertising and partnerships, The Hill reported.

Her departure from X comes as Musk wants to combine the social media company with xAI, as reported bty The Hill.

Published on July 10, 2025