SAN ANTONIO, Aug. 13, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Rackspace Technology® (NASDAQ: RXT), a global enterprise AI infrastructure and solutions provider, today announced the appointment of Chetan Gupta, Ph.D., as Chief AI Officer. Gupta will lead the Office of AI, with responsibility for Rackspace's AI strategy, research, innovation, governance, and adoption across the company and its customers. His appointment strengthens Rackspace's ability to help institutions deploy AI safely, economically, and at scale in environments where the stakes are highest: regulated industries, sovereign jurisdictions, and mission-critical operations.
Gupta joins Rackspace after nearly a decade leading global AI research at Hitachi, where he served as General Manager of the Advanced AI Center in Japan, Vice President of the Industrial AI Lab in North America, and head of Hitachi's Global AI Center of Excellence. His work was instrumental in Hitachi's evolution toward Physical AI, building systems for railways, energy grids, factories, and buildings, environments where AI must operate under institutional accountability, jurisdictional requirements, and zero tolerance for failure. Earlier in his career, he spent seven years at HP Labs translating advanced AI research into deployed solutions across logistics, manufacturing, energy, and mobility. He has authored nearly 300 papers and patents and mentored a generation of AI researchers and engineers.
"Chetan has spent his career building AI for the institutions the world depends on. At Hitachi, that meant trains, grids, and factories, where AI is not a demo, but an operating commitment measured in uptime, safety, and trust," said Gajen Kandiah, CEO of Rackspace Technology. "That is precisely the discipline our customers need as they move AI into production inside regulated and sovereign environments. Chetan understands that success depends on more than model capability. It requires strategy, governance, and an operator who carries accountability from silicon to outcomes.”
Gupta's appointment reflects Rackspace's continued investment in enabling institutions to turn AI ambition into governed, measurable business outcomes and reinforces the company's position as the place where enterprise AI goes to production.
"AI has reached an inflection point. The hard problem is no longer capability. It is trust: taking promising research and turning it into systems that hold up in the real world, under real regulatory and operational constraints," said Gupta. "Rackspace occupies a distinct position in the market, operating the full stack for institutions that cannot afford to get AI wrong. I look forward to leading our AI strategy and advancing enterprise and sovereign AI for our customers and across the business."
Gupta holds a Ph.D. in mathematics and master's degrees in mathematical computer science and chemical engineering from the University of Illinois Chicago.
About Rackspace Technology
Rackspace Technology® (NASDAQ: RXT) is the operator of the full enterprise AI stack from governed private cloud to AI inference and agents in production. With an Outcomes-as-a-Service model built on secure infrastructure, data foundations and forward-deployed engineering, Rackspace delivers business results for regulated and mission-critical industries where governance, sovereignty and uptime are non-negotiable. Learn more at www.rackspace.com.
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