Who is Srinivas Narayanan? US techie quits OpenAI, plans to return to India to spend time with ‘ageing parents’

Srinivas Narayanan, an Indian-origin tech leader who has served as Chief Technology Officer for B2B Applications at OpenAI since September 2025, has announced he will be leaving the company next week. Based in San Francisco, he initially joined as Vice President of Engineering and is concluding what he described as “three incredible years” at the AI startup led by Sam Altman.

Taking to his social media platforms on Friday (US time), Narayanan wrote, “I have decided to leave OpenAI. The last three years have been an incredible journey that felt more like ten.” He further confirmed that he had shares his decision with the OpenAI leadership team at the month’s beginning. In addition to announcing his major exit, Narayanan also hinted at returning to India to spending “some much needed-time” with his “aging parents” before setting off on a new professionally journey.

I am looking forward to spending some much-needed time with my ageing parents in India before deciding what’s next, he added.

See the post here:

Who is Srinivas Narayanan?

Srinivas Narayanan is a technologist who completed his Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras between 1991 and 1995, according to his LinkedIn profile.

He then pursued a Master of Science (MS) in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1995 to 1996.

Srinivas Narayanan began his career as a software engineer at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in 1997.

He later served as Director of Technology at Tavant Technologies before co-founding Viralizr in 2007, where he worked as CTO on consumer products focused on social collaboration.

In 2008, he joined Facebook (now Meta) as Vice President of Engineering, where he spent over a decade leading large-scale engineering efforts. After his tenure there, he briefly worked with General Catalyst on AI-related initiatives before joining OpenAI in April 2023 as Vice President of Engineering. At OpenAI, he led key areas including ChatGPT, the developer API platform, and supporting infrastructure.

In September 2025, he was promoted to CTO of B2B Applications, a role he held until his departure after more than three years at the company.

Netizens react

The post received strong engagement, with 3,419 reactions—including likes, loves, and support, along with 151 comments and 4 reposts, as many people wished him success in his future endeavours.

A user noted, "Sir since you will be coming to India for a while. I would love to meet you again. The last time we met was at IIT Madras in summer of 2025. After that, I have been working on some really cool projects and ideas. I would love to share them with you and get your feedback."

Another wrote, "Congratulations and thank you for building a great product. Awesome to hear you spending time with your parents - cherish those priceless moments."

Another user replied, "Wishing you all the best Srinivas Narayanan! What an Epic Run from GPT to Frontier. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your posts and deeply technical write-ups. Looking forward to see your next journey. Hope our paths cross soon."