OpenAI's Indian Origin CTO Quits, Heads Home to Aging Parents in India

Srinivas Narayanan, the Indian origin Chief Technology Officer of B2B Applications at OpenAI, has announced his departure from the company after three years, with his exit set for next week in the latest in a series of senior leadership changes at the AI giant.

Narayanan, originally from Chennai, broke the news on social media Friday, writing: "The last three years have been an incredible journey that felt more like ten." He joined OpenAI as Vice President of Engineering before being elevated to the CTO role in September 2025, where he led the B2B engineering team and the Applied Engineering division responsible for products including ChatGPT and the OpenAI API platform.

"We shipped some of the fastest growing products in history with no real playbook to guide us," he said, crediting the team he built alongside CEO Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, and Fidji Simo.

His departure coincides with the exit of two other senior leaders, Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles, though sources say Narayanan's decision is unrelated.

An IIT Madras graduate with a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin, Narayanan said he plans to return to India to spend time with his aging parents before deciding his next step.