OpenAI is making a big hire in Bellevue, doubling in the Seattle district near Microsoft and Amazon HQs.
OpenAI is betting big on the Seattle region, signing a major new lease in Bellevue as the ChatGPT maker expands near the headquarters of two key cloud partners.
The company is taking 10 more floors at City Center Plaza in downtown Bellevue, increasing its space to 296,000 square feet, according to sources familiar with the matter. OpenAI previously occupied two floors in the building. It is one of the largest AI leasing companies in the region.
The San Francisco-based company now has space for more than 1,000 office workers, based on typical real estate standards. OpenAI, which arrived in Bellevue in 2024, currently employs more than 300 people in the Seattle area, according to LinkedIn data — up from about 169 in September.
The office gives OpenAI a large hub just a short distance from Microsoft’s Redmond headquarters and within a few blocks of Amazon’s sprawling Bellevue towers, strengthening its relationship with both cloud giants.
Microsoft has invested billions of dollars in OpenAI and serves as a key strategic partner, providing the Azure cloud infrastructure that supports many OpenAI models and products.
At the same time, OpenAI deepened its relationship with Amazon, inking a $38 billion cloud contract in November. Amazon is reportedly in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI as part of a new investment round.
Microsoft previously occupied most of the 26-story City Center Plaza building but said in 2023 it would not renew its lease. The building is close to a light rail station that will provide transportation links to Seattle starting in March.
CoStar reported on the development of OpenAI earlier this week.
OpenAI recently acquired Seattle-based startup Statsig for $1 billion. The company is reportedly preparing for an IPO.
The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI pays employees “more than any tech startup in recent history,” with average stock-based compensation set at about $1.5 million per person at the company, which has about 4,000 employees.
OpenAI now has one of the largest offices among out-of-town technology companies with satellite engineering centers throughout the Seattle region. Meta, Google, Apple, and other Silicon Valley giants have large footprints in the area, which boasts one of the world’s top talent pools. OpenAI competitor Anthropic opened an office in Seattle two years ago and is hiring.
Seattle has the most AI developers in the US after Silicon Valley, according to a 2024 report from venture capital firm SignalFire.
OpenAI’s new lease also reflects Eastside’s growing role in the AI boom. A number of tech companies have signed new or expanded leases in and around Bellevue recently, including Snap, Anduril, Shopify, Snowflake, Walmart, and Chewy. Uber and Databricks are filling a new downtown office tower, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal.
Vacancy rates remain high in downtown Bellevue, reaching 25.4% at the end of last year, according to the Broderick Group.
That’s not as high as the city of Seattle, where vacancy rates peaked in Q4, at 34.7%, according to CBRE.
“Significantly, a growing number of new market entrants … are choosing the Eastside over Seattle, drawn by Bellevue’s modern office inventory, business-friendly climate and skilled technology workforce,” noted Broderick in his Q4 report.
