RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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The head of data centers at OpenAI has reportedly left. At the risk of being a tad insensitive, can you imagine having that job title right now?
For reference, here is the lede of a relevant Politico story from Monday :
“The intensifying late-summer backlash against data centers is inspiring panic among some corners of the tech sector — amid fears that the industry is mishandling a political crisis that will stretch into 2028 and beyond.”
A Heatmap poll from earlier this month found that an astonishing 75% of the U.S. public opposes data center development in their area. Another recent poll found that OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman is distrusted by an astonishing 75% of 18- to 34-year olds.
What I’m saying is, if I had “head of data centers at OpenAI” on my business card, I would have been tempted to leave too.
The news of this apparent resignation comes from an anonymously-sourced Wall Street Journal article . Apparently this head of data centers, Chris Malone, left last week after having been hired in March of last year. He was meant to oversee OpenAI’s part in the development of the Stargate project, a huge joint venture with Oracle and Softbank. Progress on Stargate has been shaky and uncertain , and while the Journal says OpenAI has a new plan for building out data center capacity, it says, “other leaders are heading that effort.”
In a YouTube video of a speech from 2023 , when Malone worked for Meta, you can hear Malone say, “I’ve been working in the energy efficiency space for compute and data centers for almost 20 years.” Malone does not look or sound anything like what you’re probably imagining. I would guess that this man has never heard of peptides , and in fact he comes across as soft-spoken and thoughtful. I sincerely wish him all the best.
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