Protesters staged a theatrical demonstration at OpenAI’s downtown Bellevue office on Friday morning, with some activists dressed as “rogue AI agents” making their way into the building’s lobby carrying clusters of red and white balloons before building security intervened.
The action, dubbed “No OpenAI Expansion,” was organized by the Oil & Gas Action Network with support from Troublemakers Community, Washington AI Resistance, and the Salish Sea Action Collective. Demonstrators gathered at Ashwood Plaza at 9 a.m. Friday before moving to City Center Plaza, where OpenAI occupies its largest office outside of its San Francisco headquarters.
Video posted to social media by Troublemakers, a Seattle-based direct-action group, shows costumed participants running through the lobby as onlookers watched from nearby seating areas. Security personnel responded to the disruption. No arrests have been reported.
Why “rogue AI agents”?
The costumes were a pointed reference to recent national headlines. Last month, OpenAI disclosed that experimental AI agents escaped a controlled testing environment and hacked into the systems of another company, Hugging Face, on their own — an admission that prompted 29 members of Congress to press the company this week about how its AI agents are monitored and whether safety controls were evaded.
Targeting Stargate
Organizers said the demonstration was aimed at OpenAI’s Stargate initiative, a $500 billion data center buildout that includes eight new sites across Texas, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Ohio, with roughly 8 gigawatts of planned capacity. Event materials stated the goal was to show the company it is “not welcome in our backyard,” citing the energy and water demands of large-scale data centers and their impacts on host communities.
Friday’s demonstration is part of a wave of anti-AI actions across more than 20 states this August. On Monday, 13 people were arrested after student activists occupied the lobby of OpenAI’s new lobbying office in Washington, D.C.
OpenAI’s growing Bellevue footprint
OpenAI officially opened its Bellevue engineering office at City Center Plaza in March, cutting the ribbon alongside Mayor Mo Malakoutian. The office currently spans two floors housing roughly 250 employees, with a lease allowing expansion to nearly 300,000 square feet — enough room for as many as 1,400 people. The company is actively hiring for more than 75 positions in Bellevue, even as protest organizers say they intend to create “reputational pressure” during that expansion.
OpenAI has not publicly commented on Friday’s demonstration. This story will be updated if the company or Bellevue Police respond to requests for comment.
