Richmond officials are hopeful that OpenAI’s plan to open an office on the city’s waterfront will be a boon, not just for the job market and tax base but for the local economy.
The San Francisco-based tech giant, which is probably best known for its ChatGPT app that uses artificial intelligence to answer user questions, says its mission is to “ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity.” It hasn’t formally announced it’s taking over the more than 200,000-square-foot property at Portside Commerce Center. But city and county officials, including Richmond Mayor Eduardo Martinez, confirmed media reports that the company is coming to Richmond.
Contra Costa County property records show the company leased the building at 1411 Harbour Way, at Terminal 3 east of the ferry terminal, on March 9. Several messages left for OpenAI’s spokespeople weren’t returned.
“Silicon Valley is tapped out,” Martinez said. “It’s overpriced. Richmond has lots of land, it’s affordable, and we have a workforce.”
The building was last occupied by portable battery startup Moxion, which vacated the site and filed for bankruptcy in August 2024.
Brookfield Properties is the official lessee of the building, with OpenAI subleasing all of it, said Richmond Port Director Charles Gerard. Brookfield didn’t return messages requesting comment.
“Harbour Way South is essentially a transit area and gateway to Richmond with the SF ferry nearby, so this addition will increase the utilization of the transportation infrastructure and amenities in the area, as well as bring more people into the city of Richmond,” Gerard said.
Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia, who represents Richmond, said OpenAI could have a “business cluster” effect, attracting not only businesses with products and services connected to OpenAI but other non-related tech and manufacturing businesses as well.
“I think the region has an ‘open for business’ sign out for companies like this,” Gioia said. “It’s lower priced than many areas in the Bay Area. It can establish a foothold for better manufacturing jobs. Workers can come by the nearby freeway, the ferry, the bus — it’s convenient from a transportation standpoint.”
Martinez said he recently spoke with an OpenAI official. He said the operation won’t require any approvals from the city council, but he hasn’t seen a timeline for when it might move in.
Gerard said, “My understanding is they will use the space for operational software and hardware development and testing. It will not be a data center, which is another question we have been asked.”
OpenAI to bring 730 jobs to Richmond, mayor says
Martinez said he was told it’ll be a 24/7 operation, bringing 730 jobs to Richmond.
“The economic benefits will be $75 million annually, which comes to the city (in taxes), and $34 million in other benefits, like money spent in gas stations, restaurants and other stores,” Martinez said, citing what he said were OpenAI projections.
Chevron is currently the city’s largest taxpayer and employer, with about 3,000 workers. Chevron paid Richmond more than $58.8 million in taxes and other fees — nearly 24% of the city’s budgeted general fund revenue — in fiscal 2024-25. Other large employers in Richmond include Kaiser, WCCUSD and UPS. Also, not far from the OpenAI site, last April energy storage company Viridi took over a 40,000-square-foot space in the former Ford Motor plant.
Top 10 Richmond employers
Source: Richmond Finance Department’s Comprehensive Annual Financial Report
Martinez said he wasn’t sure how many of the 730 jobs would be new hires versus current employees. The company has two offices in San Francisco and one in Mountain View, as well as more than a dozen locations nationwide and worldwide, employing an estimated 5,000 people.
“I asked about pay scale. I said we need jobs with livable wages,” said Martinez of his conversation with OpenAI.
Martinez, who is running for reelection in the June primary, has long advocated for bringing new businesses to Richmond’s port and said he’s often said that Richmond could be the “new Silicon Valley.”
He also said OpenAI’s move could boost quality home development.
“These are going to be well-paying jobs and people are going to want to live near where they work,” Martinez said. “There’s going to be a need for housing to increase.”
The Richmond Chamber of Commerce released a statement, saying it’s aware of the reports that OpenAI is coming to the port area, but it hasn’t received any confirmation from the company.
Not everyone supports OpenAI or similar artificial intelligence companies
While Richmond needs to diversify its business tax base to prepare for a transition away from a fossil fuel economy, there has been growing discontent over the world’s use of artificial intelligence.
There have been a number of protests at OpenAI’s offices in San Francisco and elsewhere, and someone was arrested recently in connection with attacks on OpenAI founder Sam Altman’s house at Lombard and Chestnut streets.
A man accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at the OpenAI founder’s home was opposed to artificial intelligence and had a list of other AI tech executives, according to court documents.
Authorities allege Spring, Texas, resident Daniel Moreno-Gama threw the incendiary device about 4 a.m. Friday, setting an exterior gate at Altman’s home on fire before fleeing on foot, police said. Less than an hour later, Moreno-Gama allegedly went to OpenAI’s headquarters and reportedly threatened to burn down the building. He was arrested that day.
On Monday morning, FBI agents went to Moreno-Gama’s home in Spring, Texas, a suburb of Houston, where they spent several hours before leaving. He has been charged with possession of an unregistered firearm and damage and destruction of property by means of explosives.
When Moreno-Gama was arrested Friday, officials found a document on him in which he “identified views opposed to (AI) and the executives of various AI companies,” court documents say.
Moreno-Gama wrote of AI’s purported risk to humanity and “our impending extinction,” according to the criminal complaint.
Advocacy groups that have issued grave warnings about AI’s risks to society condemned the violence.
Anthony Aguirre, president and CEO of the Future of Life Institute, which has an office in Campbell and other cities worldwide, said in a written statement Friday that “violence and intimidation of any kind have no place in the conversation about the future of AI.”
Another group, PauseAI, said in a statement that the suspect had no role in the group but joined its forum on the social media platform Discord about two years ago and posted about 34 messages there, none containing explicit calls to violence but one that was flagged as “ambiguous.”
Altman said in a blog post after the attack that “fear and anxiety about AI is justified” but it was important to “de-escalate the rhetoric and tactics and try to have fewer explosions in fewer homes, figuratively and literally.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
