Meet Vijaye Raji: The Indian tech genius OpenAI just hired as CTO after $1.1 Billion buyout

OpenAI has made its boldest leadership bet yet, paying $1.1 billion to acquire Vijaye Raji's startup and install him as chief technology officer—a move that signals the company's desperation to lock down engineering talent as it races rivals like Google and Anthropic in the artificial intelligence arms race. The Indian-born technologist, whose name was virtually unknown outside Silicon Valley circles until now, apparently commanded a price tag that rivals some of the most expensive executive hirings in tech history. The acquisition raises uncomfortable questions about whether even the world's most heavily funded AI company can simply buy its way past a mounting brain drain and the fundamental technical challenges that have begun to slow its path to artificial general intelligence.

The Times of India·Sep 12