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Sandhya Devanathan Leaves Meta to Join OpenAI in Singapore

OpenAI's hire advances its Asia‑Pacific expansion, raising questions about Devanathan's roles with Reliance and Jio.

Overview

  • Devanathan confirmed in a LinkedIn post Friday that she is leaving Meta after more than a decade and will be based in Singapore reporting to OpenAI’s Asia‑Pacific managing director, Kiran Mani.
  • OpenAI said she will oversee consumer growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, regulatory engagement and regional operations across Southeast Asia and Australia.
  • Meta has adjusted its India leadership so Arun Srinivas will now report to Benjamin Joe, the company’s vice president for Asia‑Pacific.
  • Her exit comes as Meta faces intensified regulatory pressure in India over content moderation, child‑safety concerns and a recent incident in which Instagram mistakenly restricted a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
  • Devanathan is a founding board member of the MetaReliance enterprise AI joint venture and a Jio Platforms board observer, and it remains unclear whether she will keep those roles after joining OpenAI which could affect the JV’s governance and commercial ties.