Meet Sechin Katti, IIT Bombay Grade Leader AI, Tech and now strategy in Intel
From Belgavi in Karnataka to Silicon Valley in the US, Sachin Katti’s journey connects academic talent and bold leadership that is now concluding in a role that will potentially carry forward Intel’s AI future.
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In short
- IIT Bombay Graduate took over as Intel’s chief AI officer
- Kati picked up full-rich radio, once thought technically impossible
- New Intel CTO to lead the strategy during large restructuring
In the world that sometimes developed semiconductor and artificial intelligence, some stories are notable like Sachin Katti. Since a childhood in Belagavi, Karnataka, Katti’s visit has been remarkable to become Intel’s new Chief Technology Officer and Chief AI Officer. His appointment, effective from April 18, 2025, comes at a time when Intel is not only restructuring his leadership, but also a large betting on AI as a main pillar of his future. Intel’s CEO Lip-Bo Tan, who succeeds Pat Gailinger after internal disagreement, is intelligent through turbulent times-including job cuts, strategic repetitions and closure of major divisions. Within this scenario, Katti has been chosen to lead the company’s AI and technology strategy, a role that puts it in the very center of Intel’s change.
Katti’s educational journey began at St. Xavier High School and later at IIT Bombay, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering in 2003. This was just the beginning. He went to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to pursue his master and PhD, where his doctoral work gave him prestigious George Spowels Awards.
Perhaps one of the most famous successes of Katti came not in the boardroom, but in a Stanford Lab. As a professor at the University of Stanford, he led a team, which developed in-band full-duplex radio, basically wireless systems that are capable of transmitted and achieved at the same frequency at the same time. This was something that engineers fought for more than a century. His work was not only in academic magazines. Katti co-established Kumu Network to commercialize technology, in which the global telecommunications giants such as Dutash Telecom and Verizon took advantage of more than $ 25 million in funding and successfully tested.
While Kumu was eventually injured in late 2024, the innovation brought in wireless communication remains on it. Half of the work of cut on full-ride radio has the ability to cut spectrum use, which brings out the benefit of multi-trilian-dollar implications for global telecommunications.
The passion of the cut for openness is equally important. In 2016, he co-established the Exaran Forum, which later evolved into the O-Ran coalition. As the co-chairman of its technical governing committee, Katti helped to stop the dependence of the industry, dependency on the ownership telecom infrastructure, standardize and promote competition. This ethos of openness mires the current battle of Intel against the tightly controlled Kuda ecosystem of Nvidia, making the katti a natural option for the role.
In 2016, Kati co-install another startup called Uhana, which applied artificial intelligence to customize the mobile network. VMware acquired the company in 2019, and joined the Katti Telco and Edge Strategy as Vice President. He then moved to Intel in 2021, getting up quickly through rank – from CTO of his network and edge group to general manager, and now, Chief Technology and AI Officer.
Kati will now oversee the company’s product Roadmap, Intel Labs, and manage its startups and developers of developer ecosystems. Their height marks a change of how Intel sees AI, not as an embedded side project within his data center business, but as a main task worthy of dedicated leadership.
His appointment also follows the retirement of Greg Lavender, which was followed by the previous CTO Gelsinger from VMware. The shake-up CEO is part of the vision of lip-bo tan to level the hierarchy of Intel and bring product development to the top. For the first time, Intel’s major chip division will report directly to Tan.
But this infection comes with its challenges. Last week, Intel alone announced a major pruning with over 100 jobs at his Santa Clara headquarters, affecting up to 20 percent of the widespread global cuts. The company also closed its automotive division, which closed most of the employees in the unit. Engineering roles from chip designers to software architects are being affected. The company is also outsourced to act in parts of its marketing functions, AI has set to play an important role in automating customer communication.
For Katti, being part of this innings is more than an individual milestone. It keeps him with a growing group of Indian original leaders who shape global technology, Satya Nadella in Microsoft, beautiful Pichai in Google and recently joining the Meta Superintending Team from Trapit Bansal.
