META
Meta’s India play gets a little shakier
Meta is losing Sandhya Devanathan, its India and Southeast Asia vice president, who’s leaving for OpenAI after more than a decade at the company. That’s not exactly the kind of news you want when regulators are already peering over your shoulder.
Why this matters
Devanathan wasn’t some random middle manager. She was responsible for growth, enterprise adoption, partnerships, policy engagement, and day-to-day execution across Southeast Asia and Australia — basically the kind of person you want when a market is big, complicated, and politically sensitive.
For Meta, the timing is awkward. Indian officials have been turning up the heat on safety and moderation issues, so swapping out a top regional leader right now adds a bit more turbulence to an already messy patch of water. Meanwhile, OpenAI keeps building its Asia-Pacific footprint and now gets another experienced operator to help steer the ship.
Big picture: in the AI race, talent is the new oil, except the oil keeps changing jobs and the pipeline is looking very competitive.