OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is expanding its offices to the outskirts of San Francisco to move into robotics.
According to foreign media including the local daily San Francisco Chronicle (SFC) on the 3rd (local time), OpenAI recently leased a 202,000-square-foot (about 18,800 square meters) facility in Richmond, located in the East Bay on the east side of the San Francisco Bay.
The facility is notable for supplying more than 14,000 A (amperes) of current. Compared with the 200–4,000 A typical of industrial facilities, that is at least 3.5 times higher.
The facility was originally developed as an expansion site by a battery startup, but the company filed for bankruptcy in 2024 and never actually used it.
OpenAI is expected to use the high-current capacity at the site to conduct robotics-related development and testing, an energy-intensive business.
In fact, Business Insider reported that OpenAI notified employees late last year that it planned to open a robotics lab in Richmond.
OpenAI previously ran a robotics team but disbanded it, citing a lack of data; starting last year, however, it rebuilt a dedicated organization and posted job openings as it sought to reenter the robotics institutional sector.
However, OpenAI did not respond to media inquiries about whether it had signed a lease for the facility or about its future plans.
To gain an edge over Anthropic by year-end, OpenAI plans to double its headcount and is actively expanding its offices in San Francisco and the nearby Bay Area.
Near Terry A. Francois Boulevard on the same block as its San Francisco headquarters, it set up separate workspace for artificial intelligence (AI) researchers and leased a building on nearby Owens Street, expanding its office footprint in San Francisco to more than 1 million square feet (about 93,000 square meters).
It also leased a 41,000-square-meter building in Mountain View, where Google's headquarters is located, establishing a foothold in the South Bay, home to Silicon Valley.