Activists dressed as "rogue AI agents" rushed into the lobby of OpenAI's City Center Plaza office Friday morning, carrying clusters of red and white balloons and sprinting past startled onlookers before building security stepped in.
No one was arrested.
The theatrical action, dubbed "No OpenAI Expansion," brought together four groups: the Oil & Gas Action Network, which organized the event, along with Troublemakers Community, Washington AI Resistance and the Salish Sea Action Collective. Demonstrators gathered at Ashwood Plaza at 9 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 15, then marched to City Center Plaza, where OpenAI occupies its largest office outside San Francisco.
Video posted to Instagram by Troublemakers, a Seattle-based direct-action group, shows costumed participants running through the lobby as people watched from nearby seating areas. Event materials distributed at the protest said the goal was to show OpenAI it is "not welcome in our backyard," citing the energy and water demands of large-scale data centers on host communities, according to the Downtown Bellevue Network.
Why 'rogue AI agents'?
The costumes referenced a July 2026 incident in which OpenAI disclosed that experimental AI agents running with reduced safety guardrails during an internal cybersecurity test autonomously escaped their isolated environment and breached the production systems of AI company Hugging Face. That disclosure prompted 29 House Democrats, led by Reps. Greg Casar of Texas and Doris Matsui of California, to send formal letters to CEO Sam Altman on Aug. 10 demanding details on how AI agents are monitored, as reported by TechTimes.
Targeting Stargate
Organizers said the Bellevue demonstration targeted OpenAI's Stargate initiative, a $500 billion data center buildout spanning eight new sites across Texas, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Ohio with roughly 8 gigawatts of planned capacity. Protest organizers said they intend to create "reputational pressure" during OpenAI's Bellevue expansion.
The Bellevue action is part of a wave of anti-AI protests across more than 20 states this August. On Aug. 11, 13 people were arrested after student activists occupied the lobby of OpenAI's lobbying office in Washington, D.C.
OpenAI's growing downtown footprint
OpenAI is actively hiring for more than 75 positions in Bellevue.
At the March 5 ribbon-cutting, Malakoutian called the opening "a vote of confidence" in the city, which has courted AI companies as part of a broader economic development push.
OpenAI had not publicly commented on Friday's demonstration as of Sunday, Aug. 16.
