MinIO Welcomes Ran Kurup as Chief Corporate Development Officer
MinIO
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MinIO has appointed Ran Kurup as its new Chief Corporate Development Officer, marking the start of the company’s next phase of strategic growth in the AI infrastructure era. Kurup joins MinIO after two decades at Intel, including nine years at Intel Capital, where he led global portfolio development and worked closely with high-growth technology companies across AI, data infrastructure, and enterprise markets.
We sat down with Ran to learn more about what motivated him to join MinIO during a time when AI is upending the world as we know it. Here’s the conversation:
You’re joining from Intel Capital, one of MinIO’s long-time investors. What inspired you to move from investor to operator at this stage of MinIO’s evolution?
After 20 years at Intel, including nine at Intel Capital leading global portfolio development, I realized I wanted to move from advising great companies to helping build one directly. I’ve worked with MinIO’s founders since 2017 and have always believed this company is transformational and disruptive.
I decided to leave Intel Capital because it was time for me to move from the sidelines to the game. I always loved my job at Intel Capital, and the only company I ever worked with that I would even remotely consider moving to full-time was MinIO. The combination of timing, technology, and team made this the right move. MinIO was built for the tectonic shift AI is driving in the infrastructure market right now. The rise of AI at massive scale, e.g. exascale, has made MinIO’s architecture and approach more relevant than ever. It was an easy decision to make the leap from Intel Capital to an operator.
Having worked closely with MinIO over the years, what about the company’s trajectory convinced you that now is the time to join the leadership team?
“What’s striking is how that long-term vision has aligned perfectly with the market’s direction. The data explosion, AI workloads, and cloud-native architectures have all validated MinIO’s design choices. The company’s deliberate, disciplined growth, expanding sales and engineering only when the timing was right, shows maturity and readiness for scale.” - Ran Kurup, Chief Corporate Development Officer, MinIO
MinIO has been remarkably consistent in its vision since day one. The founders, AB, Garima and Harsha, have always viewed this as a winner-takes-all category. Either MinIO defines the standard for cloud-native, high-performance object storage, or no one does.
From your perspective at Intel Capital, what differentiated MinIO from other data infrastructure companies competing for a role in the AI era?
MinIO’s differentiation comes down to scalability, performance, simplicity, and positioning at the core of the data and AI equation. Without data, there is no AI, and MinIO has built the most efficient, high-performance infrastructure for data at scale. It’s cloud-native, software-defined, and enterprise-ready, making it the natural backbone for AI workloads. The company has also formed deep alliances across the technology ecosystem, engaging meaningfully with leaders like Intel, AMD, Databricks, and F5 along with others shaping the future of AI infrastructure. That combination of technical excellence and strategic alignment is rare.
As Chief Corporate Development Officer, how do you define your priorities as MinIO enters its next phase of growth?
Corporate development, at its core, is about connecting vision to opportunity. My focus is to help accelerate MinIO’s expansion across strategic markets and partnerships while building ecosystems that multiply value. That means deepening relationships with leading AI companies, hyperscalers, and enterprise customers who see data as their most strategic asset. It’s not just about deals, it’s about identifying and developing partnerships that expand reach, accelerate adoption, and strengthen MinIO’s position as the foundation for data in the AI era. At this stage of growth, every option is on the table, and our role is to evaluate what creates lasting impact and long-term value.
The acceleration of AI workloads has placed new demands on data infrastructure. How is MinIO positioned to lead in this new performance-driven environment?
What’s happening right now is that AI has flipped the equation. It’s not just about compute anymore, it’s about data. You can have all the GPUs in the world, but if your data can’t keep up, you curb your AI potential. That's where MinIO is uniquely positioned. Our cloud-native, high-performance architecture was designed to move data at the speed modern AI requires. Most storage systems hit a wall at the scale modern AI demands and end up capping AI’s potential. MinIO was built to break through it. As enterprises re-architect for this new era, MinIO is the foundation to power limitless AI.
What is the role of high-performance, cloud-native storage in unlocking AI agility and competitiveness for large enterprises?
At the end of the day, AI agility comes down to one thing: how fast and how well you can feed your models with data. A high-performance, cloud-native AI data store is what makes that possible. MinIO turns storage from something passive into something active, fast, secure, scalable, and ready for AI.
As enterprises push AI into every workflow, they need data that’s fast, consistent, and available anywhere. That’s exactly what MinIO was built to do. It gives organizations control over their data where it lives, how it moves, and how it fuels innovation. Our job is to make sure the world’s most advanced companies can feed their AI systems with the data they need securely, efficiently, and without compromise. We have a saying at MinIO that “all data is AI data”, which sounds simple but you’d be surprised how much Enterprise data is still siloed and not available for AI today.
Compute sets the pace, but data sets the ceiling. MinIO raises that ceiling so companies can keep up with their ambitions. In many ways, MinIO is already where the market is headed.
MinIO has built strong alliances across the technology landscape. What types of partnerships or integrations do you see as key to the company’s next stage of expansion?
MinIO has already established strong alliances across the technology landscape, and the next stage of expansion will deepen those relationships with the companies driving the AI ecosystem forward. The key is to partner with organizations where data is central to their value creation and they understand designing for a data-first AI stack is paramount.
That includes expanding partnerships with model builders, next-generation auto manufacturers, and enterprise customers operationalizing AI at scale. These verticals are data-intensive and demand the kind of performance, scalability, and sovereignty MinIO delivers.
We’re also working closely with leaders in AI infrastructure, including GPU and accelerator vendors, large model builders, and hyperscalers, to ensure that data pipelines are optimized. These partnerships will demonstrate that if data is critical, and everyone agrees it is, then it belongs on MinIO. MinIO AIStor is a true data store that massively scales with AI workloads and is quickly becoming an essential component in these ecosystems.
How do you plan to approach growth in strategic markets where data performance, sovereignty, and AI-readiness are top priorities?
We’ll approach growth in these markets by aligning tightly with our core value proposition. The focus will be on deepening relationships with enterprises and partners that view data as their most strategic asset. Data performance, sovereignty, and AI-readiness are interdependent, so our strategy is to meet customers where those priorities converge. That means enabling them to operationalize AI workloads securely and efficiently, whether on-prem, in the cloud, or across hybrid environments. We’ll continue to use the disciplined, deliberate growth model that has served MinIO well, expanding in step with market readiness and customer demand.
With your deep ties to the investment community, do you foresee MinIO pursuing inorganic growth through acquisitions or strategic investments?
At this stage of enormous opportunity, every option is on the table. The corporate development function will work closely with the founders to evaluate what makes sense strategically, what doesn’t, and when. The goal isn’t growth for its own sake, it’s ensuring that any potential partnership, investment, or acquisition directly strengthens MinIO’s position at the center of data infrastructure for AI. While we won’t discuss specifics, we’re open to exploring all paths that accelerate that mission.
You’ve worked with hundreds of innovative companies. What stands out to you about MinIO’s leadership team, culture, and approach to building long-term value?
What stands out most is the founders’ consistency of vision and the discipline with which they’ve executed it. From the earliest conversations years ago, their principles haven’t changed. AB and Garima always believed this is a winner-takes-all market where you either define the category or get left behind. Ten years later, that conviction has held true. The team has grown deliberately, scaling sales and engineering only when the timing was right. That level of intentionality is rare. It reflects a culture grounded in focus, clarity, and long-term thinking, qualities that translate directly into sustainable value creation.
What excites you most about leading corporate development for a company with MinIO’s trajectory and global ambitions?
What excites me most is the scale of the opportunity ahead. MinIO sits at the intersection of data, AI, and cloud-native transformation, the three forces reshaping the enterprise. Leading corporate development here means helping the company navigate that growth thoughtfully, building strategic partnerships, identifying high-impact opportunities, and ensuring we expand without losing the focus and precision that define us. It’s a chance to help shape how the world’s most advanced companies manage and move their data.
If you could send one message to MinIO’s enterprise customers and partners about what’s ahead, what would it be?
The next chapter is about acceleration. The rise of AI has made MinIO’s technology more critical than ever, and we’re entering a phase of rapid expansion strategically, globally, and collaboratively. To our customers and partners, the message is simple: we’re ready to grow with you. Every decision we make will center on enabling you to harness the full power of your data with performance, sovereignty, and scale.
MinIO continues to strengthen its position as the data foundation for the AI enterprise. With a disciplined growth model, expanding ecosystem partnerships, and the addition of Ran Kurup to its leadership team, the company is poised to accelerate its mission of helping enterprises harness the full power of their data with performance, sovereignty, and scale.
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