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Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell speaks during an open house at “AI House” in Seattle on Wednesday, alongside Ada Developers Academy CEO Tina-Marie Gulley, left, AI2 Incubator co-managing director Yifan Zhang, and Markham McIntyre, director of the city’s Office of Economic Development. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
The next wave of AI startups in Seattle could be born just above the waters of Elliott Bay.
“AI House,” a first-in-the-nation hub designed to bring entrepreneurs, investors, students and community leaders together to enhance collaboration on artificial intelligence, is up and running at Pier 70.
Officials from the City of Seattle joined AI2 Incubator and Ada Developers Academy during an open house on Wednesday to officially show off the 108,000-square-foot facility. In the sprawling building, which is still being built out, there will be room for 1,000 desks in co-working space that is already home to about 20 startups.
AI House will also offer event space and be a gathering spot for more than 100 AI experts from around the region who can network, take meetings and share their knowledge with budding AI builders.
“This AI house will play a pivotal role in attracting, growing and retaining top notch AI talent, AI companies home grown here in Seattle,” said Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. “That’s what it’s all about.”
AI House features 108,000 square feet of space for offices, co-working, events and more. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
Harrell, joined by Markham McIntyre, director of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development, championed the hub as another point of pride in Harrell’s efforts to draw people and businesses back to downtown Seattle.
AI2 Incubator, which spun off in 2022 from its original home, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, runs an incubator which helps nurture startups. It also operates a venture fund that raised $30 million in fresh capital in 2023.
In one AI House office on Wednesday, Roboto co-founder and CEO Benji Barash was showing off a robotic arm built by the company. The 10-person company was spun out of AI2 Incubator, and Barash called the new space a “game-changer.”
“Being in a building like this on the waterfront is sort of disproportionately cool for an early stage startup,” he said. “And then having the resident experts coming and going is also really interesting for us, because we’re meeting people that otherwise we wouldn’t be able to meet.”
Barash also said being with other startups has been great because it’s very communal, so if someone needs help finding a lawyer or accountant or recommendation for a patent attorney, no one is really competing and all are trying to “lift each other up.”
The view of the Seattle waterfront from AI House at Pier 70. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
The gleaming space on the north end of the waterfront, with its exposed wood beams, features dozens of offices, conference rooms, a coffee space, and more across two floors that extend along Pier 70. From sweeping views of the waterfront, inside and on a outdoor deck, workers and visitors can take in criss-crossing ferries on the bay, the Olympic Mountains, Mount Rainier and the city skyline.
“AI technology clearly represents an incredible chance to shape not just the future of Seattle’s economy, but the global economy,” McIntyre said. “But to do that, we really do need to position Seattle as the epicenter of AI in the United States.”
In 2024, Washington state lawmakers approved $800,000 in funding to the City of Seattle to lease the space for AI House. Plans for the initiative were formally revealed last August, during an AI2 Incubator summer party attended by Harrell, who called the venture “a big deal” at the time.
AI2 Incubator began working out of its new offices at Pier 70 in mid-February. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
In January, AI2 Incubator announced it was moving in, from previous offices near Gas Works Park. It is now the anchor tenant in the building. The location, adjacent to Olympic Sculpture Park, was made famous in 1998 as the home of MTV’s “Real World” show, which aired its seventh season at the building.
Landmark Event Co. recently purchased Pier 70 for $11 million, according to The Seattle Times, and hopes that AI2 House will help draw more tech companies to the waterfront, which has been going through a significant transformation.
Yifan Zhang, co-managing director at the AI2 Incubator, said they’ve spun out more than 40 companies worth $1.25 billion, and the incubator wants to add significantly to those numbers.
“We know that AI’s impact will be far reaching, and today’s tiny AI startups will quickly become tomorrow’s flagship companies, in the same way that Amazon and Microsoft were once also just a handful of people with an idea,” Zhang said. “We want these AI startups to succeed, and we want them to succeed here in Seattle.”
AI2 Incubator’s partnership in AI House with Ada Developers Academy will bring students learning to code into the same space as some of the top minds in the field of AI.
Office of Economic Development Director Markham McIntyre works a robotic arm in the offices of Roboto, a startup at AI House. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
Tina-Marie Gulley was named CEO of Ada Developers Academy last fall after serving as the nonprofit’s interim chief since April 2024. The organization trains under-represented people in tech to help them prepare for careers in software development.
“For Ada, being a part of this movement is deeply personal,” Gulley said. “It’s a testament to our shared belief that AI, when shaped by diverse voices, can transform the world for the better.”
Over the past several years, Seattle’s startup scene has lost a number of communities that catered to entrepreneurs and operated physical spaces, including the surprise departure of Techstars Seattle last year. Some say these spaces are essential to help support entrepreneurs and the city’s startup climate.
Along with AI2 Incubator, other spaces and initiatives are helping to address the issue: Seattle-based founder and venture capitalist Aviel Ginzburg is leading the startup community Foundations; Plug and Play, a Silicon Valley-based group that operates innovation programs, added two new accelerators in the Seattle region; and Seattle tech vet Joe Heitzeberg is among those leading meetups under the banner AI Tinkerers.
Keep scrolling for more photos from inside AI House:
AI House will be home to 1,000 desks for tech workers. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
First floor offices at AI House are ready for new startups. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell gets a tour of AI House on Wednesday. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
A startup office at AI House. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
Olympic Sculpture Park and the Space Needle, as seen from AI House. (GeekWire Photo / Kurt Schlosser)
