Unlearn.AI Moves to Larger SF Offices Ahead of Hiring Spree

Unlearn.AI has moved its headquarters into larger San Francisco offices in anticipation of employee growth.

The locally based artificial intelligence startup relocated last month after it signed a lease for 17,700 square feet of offices at 303 Second Street, in SoMa, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Terms of the lease from Los Angeles-based Kilroy Realty were not disclosed. JLL represented both sides in the leasing deal.

Unlearn, founded seven years ago, develops AI technology to speed the process of bringing new drugs and medicines to market.

Its lease marks the latest expansion of AI firms in San Francisco, a rare bright spot among the city’s hollowed out offices, now 35.9 percent vacant.

Unlearn, whose former hub took up 3,500 square feet at 75 Hawthorne Street, not far from its new headquarters, outgrew the space.

The startup, which completed a $50 million fundraising round this month, wants to expand its workforce from 75 to more than 100 workers this year, according to CEO Charles Fisher.

The company moved out of its last headquarters before its lease expired next year to make room for the expected growth and a return-to-office by employees. The firm plans to put its former offices up for sublease.

“We are growing, not just overall headcount, but the number of people close to the headquarters that can come into the office,” Fisher told the Business Times.

AI companies such as ChatGPT-maker OpenAI and Anthropic leased more than 1 million square feet of offices in San Francisco in the first 11 months of last year, a 50 percent increase from 2022, according to JLL. The total volume rose to 3.6 million square feet by year’s end.

The AI boom is a boon to the South of Market neighborhood, which has emptied out as many companies consolidated their offices Downtown, and where the office sector has some of the city’s highest vacancies, especially subleases.

Smaller AI tenants continue to fuel demand for offices in San Francisco, John Roskos of JLL, who represented Unlearn in the lease, told the Business Times.

The two buildings at 303 Second, containing 783,700 square feet of offices, include such tenants as Reddit and DoorDash. It was 71.1 percent leased in December, according to a regulatory filing.

— Dana Bartholomew