OpenAI plants flag in Seattle area with new office near Microsoft HQ

OpenAI has opened an office in Bellevue, Wash., as the ChatGPT-maker establishes a physical presence near its close partner Microsoft and looks to tap into the robust engineering talent pool in the Seattle area.

The office opened a few months ago, a spokesperson confirmed to GeekWire.

The news comes a few weeks after the company’s massive $6.5 billion funding round. OpenAI also said last week that it’s opening offices in New York City, Paris, Brussels, and Singapore, in addition to Seattle.

It’s also growing headcount at existing offices in San Francisco, where it is based, along with London, Dublin, and Tokyo.

The company has three open Seattle-area roles on its careers page. OpenAI has around 80 employees in the area, according to LinkedIn. The company declined to provide details on Seattle-area headcount.

The new office will give OpenAI an outpost near Microsoft, headquartered in Redmond, Wash. Microsoft has invested about $13 billion in OpenAI and provides computing power for the company’s various AI services.

The partnership gives OpenAI substantial computing resources and funding, while Microsoft gets access to cutting-edge AI technology.

OpenAI is the latest tech company to plant roots in the Seattle area, joining more than 100 companies that operate satellite engineering offices in the region, which ranked No. 2 on CBRE’s latest list of top tech hubs in the U.S. and Canada.

Pinterest and Brex also recently opened new offices in Seattle.

Amid the rise of hybrid work, some companies including Microsoft and Meta have been shedding space in Bellevue, but others such as Snowflake are expanding their footprint.

The vacancy rate for offices on the eastside of Seattle, which includes Bellevue, reached 20% in the third quarter, up from 5.7% in 2019, according to a report from Broderick Group.

The Seattle office market reached a 30% vacancy rate in the third quarter, according to a report from Colliers.

The Seattle Times previously reported about OpenAI’s plans for a Seattle-area office.