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Intel’s top artificial intelligence executive has defected to OpenAI after six months on the job, marking the latest in a series of senior departures from the chipmaker as it struggles to make a mark in the AI sector.
Sachin Katti is joining OpenAI to work on its AI infrastructure, the companies confirmed on Monday. Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan will take over his responsibilities.
Katti was deeply involved in Intel’s push to develop competitive AI software and chips to compete with dominant rivals Nvidia and AMD. He joined Intel in late 2021, and was promoted to chief technology and AI officer in April.
His move marks the second time this year that Intel has lost a top AI executive, after Justin Hotard, who led Intel’s data centre and AI business, left to become chief executive of Nokia in the spring.
It comes after chief strategy officer Safroadu Yeboah‑Amankwah left over the summer. In September, Intel announced that Michelle Johnston Holthaus, former co-chief executive and head of Intel’s chips business, would leave after more than 30 years at the company.
Intel’s failure to launch a competitive product to Nvidia’s graphics processing units and capitalise on the AI boom in recent years has contributed to its financial woes. The chipmaker has spent billions of dollars on manufacturing facilities in the US while struggling to grow its revenue from chip sales.
Intel shares are up 73 per cent in the past six months after the Trump administration took a 10 per cent stake in the company, which was followed by multibillion-dollar investments from Nvidia and SoftBank.
Silicon Valley has meanwhile been gripped by an AI talent war as tech companies race to compete in the technology.
OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman, in a post on X, said Katti would be working on “designing and building our compute infrastructure”.
The $500bn start-up has committed to some $1.4tn in spending on the infrastructure powering AI over the next eight years.
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Intel thanked Katti, adding that “AI remains one of Intel’s highest strategic priorities, and we are focused on executing our technology and product road map across emerging AI workloads”.
The chipmaker also announced the appointment of Craig Barratt, a former Intel senior vice-president and Google executive, to its board on Monday.
Additional reporting by George Hammond in San Francisco