Big AI is moving to the suburbs

OpenAI is going house hunting.

The world-leading AI company is reportedly looking for a massive corporate campus of at least 500,000 square feet to house its ever-growing workforce of insanely well paid engineers and support staff.

What’s more important than OpenAI’s desire to expand, though, is the company’s choice of where to do it.

OpenAI is looking not in the trendy, vibrant heart of San Francisco, but deep in the dull, gray corporate expanses of Silicon Valley.

That bucks a major trend in the AI space—and signals a broad and impactful change to the industry.

Corporate hermit crabs

For generations, America’s most successful tech companies have followed a familiar pattern: start in some tiny, inappropriate space, then expand to a massive office park in Palo Alto or Mountain View.