On location at OpenAI in Bellevue, with CTO of Applications Vijaye Raji
GeekWire
GeekWire
4.8 • 127 Ratings
🗓️ 7 March 2026
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
OpenAI just opened its largest office outside San Francisco, in downtown Bellevue, Wash. GeekWire was there on day one to tour the space. Chatting inside the OpenAI game room, we share our observations about the Mad Men-meets-Pacific Northwest aesthetic, which features open floor plans and lots of common areas, and try to figure out what it all says about OpenAI's culture.
Plus, we talk with Vijaye Raji, the former Statsig CEO who is now OpenAI's CTO of applications, about Codex, infrastructure, hiring, and the evolution and growth of Silicon Valley tech giants in the region.
In our final segment, it's the return of the GeekWire trivia challenge, with a question focusing on one of the earliest tech giants to establish an outpost in the Seattle area.
Related Story: Inside OpenAI’s new Bellevue office: A swanky statement about AI’s impact on the Seattle region
Upcoming Event: Agents of Transformation, March 24.
With GeekWire co-founders Todd Bishop and John Cook. Edited by Curt Milton.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Who knows with XAI 10 minutes away, perhaps you could see Sam and Elon just sitting right there. |
| 0:07.0 | They're going to be in the game room all playing poker. |
| 0:10.0 | Oh, there you go. |
| 0:11.0 | They are really playing poker in many ways. |
| 0:13.0 | They are. |
| 0:14.0 | They're playing a high-stakes game of poker in business. |
| 0:20.0 | Hi everybody and welcome to Geekwire. I'm Geekwire co-founder Todd Bishop. And I'm Geekwire, |
| 0:24.4 | co-founder, John Cook. We are coming to you from downtown Bellevue. We like to say what happens |
| 0:30.5 | here matters everywhere when we talk about the Seattle region. And John, based on where we are, |
| 0:34.5 | I feel like we are closer to that reality than we've perhaps ever been. |
| 0:40.2 | We are in the new offices of OpenAI here in downtown Bellevue. |
| 0:46.1 | We've just taken a big tour of the space. |
| 0:49.6 | John, it was fun to have you along for the tour tour and I'm really interested in your impressions. |
| 0:55.2 | But first, the teaser of what's ahead. |
| 0:57.2 | Later on, we're going to be talking with Vijay Raji, who is the CTO of applications at OpenA.I. |
| 1:02.7 | He is really kind of leading the office here. |
| 1:05.8 | And he is a startup veteran from the Seattle region, a Facebook veteran. |
| 1:09.5 | And he is one of our speakers at the |
| 1:11.8 | upcoming Agents of Transformation, AI Summit, March 24th. John, what can people expect at that event? |
| 1:18.7 | Half-day Summit, packed with content, really excited about Vijay's talk, but we also have Charles |
| 1:24.4 | Lamana from Microsoft, Deepak Singh, from Amazon. |
| 1:28.2 | So great lineup. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from GeekWire, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of GeekWire and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

