The GeekWire Podcast recently went on location to downtown Bellevue for the grand opening of OpenAI’s newest—and largest—office outside of San Francisco. The space, which blends a “Mad Men” retro-modern aesthetic with Pacific Northwest vibes, serves as a major statement on the AI giant’s commitment to the Seattle region.

The Return of the “Joy of Coding”

In an interview during the event, Vijaye Raji—the former Statsig CEO who now serves as OpenAI’s CTO of Applications—shared how AI is fundamentally altering his own relationship with software development. Raji revealed that tools like Codex have made him a programmer again, allowing him to prompt the software to handle complex tasks while he attends meetings, returning to find the work ready for review.

According to Raji, internal teams are seeing productivity gains of 2x to 3x in code output. “It’s fundamentally changed,” Raji noted. “It’s very hard for me to imagine going back to the way we used to write code.”

Bellevue as a Strategic Blueprint

The new office currently houses 250 employees, with the capacity to grow to 1,400. Raji views the Bellevue location as a “test case” for how OpenAI might expand globally. Several factors make the Seattle area ideal for this experiment:

• Proximity: A shared time zone and short flight from the San Francisco headquarters.
• Partnerships: Close physical distance to key partners Microsoft and Amazon.
• Talent Pool: Access to a deep well of local expertise in infrastructure, research, and advertising.

A Hub for Global Impact

If the Bellevue office proves successful, OpenAI plans to use its organizational “formula” to establish similar hubs in other regions. For now, the office is already a beehive of activity, hosting teams focused on everything from ChatGPT development and core research to advertising and infrastructure.

Raji is slated to dive deeper into these topics as a featured speaker at GeekWire’s upcoming AI event, Agents of Transformation, on March 24.