No IIT degree: How Indian-origin CTOs rose to lead OpenAI, Anthropic

TIME magazine has released its first-ever ‘Executives of the Year: Tech & Data’ l which recognises 50 leaders shaping the future of technology and artificial intelligence. Several Indian-origin leaders found a place on the l, including—but not limited to— Reddit chief technology officer (CTO) Amit Puntambekar, OpenAI’s CTO of Application Vijaye Raji, Anthropic CTO Rahul Patil, and Walmart CTO Suresh Kumar.Rahul Patil (L) is the CTO of Anthropic, while Vijaye Raji (R) is CTO of Applications at OpenAIOpenAI and Anthropic are two of the companies at the centre of the global AI race, and both have Indian-origin chief technology officers. But despite their leadership roles at two of the world’s most prominent AI labs, neither CTO is a graduate of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).This fact is noteworthy because IIT alumni have played an important role in the technology industry. Hory is evidence to this. Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, studied at IIT Kharagpur, while Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM, is an IIT alumnus. So is Vinod Khosla of Khosla Ventures and Nikesh Arora of Palo Alto Networks.(Also read: 5 IIT graduates who climbed to the top in the United States)Closer home, the CEOs of major companies like TCS, Infosys and ITC have all studied at IITs. But the rise of tech leaders like Anthropic CTO Rahul Patil and OpenAI CTO of Applications Vijaye Raji speaks to the fact that an IIT degree is not a prerequisite for success.More about Vijaye RajiVijaye Raji is the CTO of Applications at OpenAI, one of the world’s most valuable AI companies that shot to sudden fame with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022.Raji has served as CTO of Applications since September 2025.OpenAI is divided into three main divisions — Research, Scaling and Infrastructure, and Applications. Applications takes the technology developed the other two and “then brings it to the people”, says Vijaye Raji. Key teams like data, experimentation, and growth fall under Raji’s domain.(Also read: Who is Vijaye Raji? Indian-origin founder sells startup to OpenAI for $1.1 billion)Raji holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Pondicherry Engineering College. According to his LinkedIn profile, he graduated in 1999.After graduation, he started working for Microsoft. He spent 10 years at Microsoft before joining Facebook in 2011.Vijaye Raji then founded Statsig. The startup was acquired OpenAI in a $1.1 billion deal in 2025.More about Rahul PatilRahul Patil was named Anthropic’s chief technical officer in October 2025. Anthropic is an American AI company founded in 2021 former OpenAI researchers. It is one of the world’s fastest growing tech startups, best known for its flagship AI assant, Claude.Patil was born and raised in Bengaluru. He completed his Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science from PESIT in 2002.(Also read: Anthropic CTO shares love story from ‘very strict’ PES University in Bengaluru)After that, he went to the US to obtain a masters from Arizona State University. Patil also completed an MBA from the University of Washington.His work experience includes stints at Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Oracle.He served as CTO of Stripe before he joined Anthropic.