OpenAI Poaches High-Ranking Engineers From Tesla, xAI, and Meta to Boost AI Infrastructure and R&D

OpenAI has hired four high-ranking engineers from Tesla, xAI, and Meta to join its scaling team. The new hires include David Lau, former VP of software engineering at Tesla, and Uday Ruddarraju, former head of infrastructure engineering at xAI. They will work on building AI infrastructure, including Stargate, a joint venture dedicated to building AI infrastructure. The move comes amid increasing competition for talent and resources between major players in AI.

OpenAI has recently bolstered its scaling team with the addition of four prominent engineers from Tesla, xAI, and Meta. The new hires include David Lau, former vice president of software engineering at Tesla, and Uday Ruddarraju, former head of infrastructure engineering at xAI. They will be working on building AI infrastructure, including Stargate, a joint venture dedicated to constructing AI infrastructure. This move comes amid increasing competition for talent and resources among major players in the AI industry [1].

The new hires join OpenAI's scaling team, which manages the backend hardware and software systems and data centers, including Stargate. This team is crucial for OpenAI's mission of achieving artificial general intelligence and staying ahead of its rivals. David Lau, in a statement to WIRED, expressed his enthusiasm for the new role, stating that accelerating progress towards safe, well-aligned artificial general intelligence is the most rewarding mission he could imagine [1].

The hiring spree is part of a broader trend in the AI industry, where companies are increasingly aggressive in poaching top talent. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been particularly active, luring at least seven people from OpenAI with high pay packages and vast amounts of compute for their research [1]. This competition has prompted OpenAI to recalibrate its compensation for researchers to better compete [1].

The new hires also come at a time when OpenAI is ramping up its infrastructure efforts. In January 2025, OpenAI and Oracle announced a $30 billion per year data center deal under the Stargate initiative. This deal secures 4.5 gigawatts of data center capacity from Oracle, ensuring a stable and predictable source of compute power for OpenAI's research [3].

The competition for talent and resources in the AI industry has been intense since OpenAI released ChatGPT to the public in late 2022. The prospect of reaching artificial superintelligence has firms rethinking their hiring practices and infrastructure strategies. OpenAI's deal with Oracle is a significant move in this competitive landscape, securing a substantial amount of compute capacity and aligning with the company's long-term goals [3].

References:
[1] https://www.wired.com/story/openai-new-hires-scaling/
[2] https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/openai-poaches-top-ai-talent-from-xai-meta-and-tesla-report/article69790950.ece
[3] https://applyingai.com/2025/07/openai-and-oracle-announce-30b-stargate-data-center-deal-to-fuel-ai-infrastructure/