webAI Slaps its Name on Congress Avenue Building

webAI is making its presence known in Austin, placing its name on a downtown Congress Avenue building.

The company expanded to the 26-story, 267,956-square-foot office building at 515 Congress Avenue, leasing the top floor, a ground-level space and multiple floors in between for a combined roughly 40,000 square feet, according to the Austin Business Journal. WebAI also plans to install signage near the top of the building at the southeast corner of Sixth Street and Congress, replacing the PMG marquee that currently crowns the tower.

Stream Realty Partners’ Cameron Grier, Brita Hovde and Brad Philp handle leasing for the building at 515 Congress, which is owned by Newport Beach, California-based KBS Realty Advisors. According to Stream, KBS has spent more than $10 million on renovations since 2015 to the 1974-built Class A office building.

webAI initially leased the top floor of the building about two years ago and has been steadily adding space as it scales. Its headquarters will sit on the 26th floor, complete with a private elevator, while the ground-floor space will house an engineering lab with freight elevator access for specialized hardware, co-founder and CEO David Stout told the outlet.

The office expansion follows a fresh funding round announced Jan. 14 that pegged the company’s valuation at $2.5 billion — a dramatic leap from the roughly $700 million valuation it carried when it burst onto the scene in 2024. Investors in the round included Time Ventures, Atreides Management, Forerunner and Oxcart Ventures, according to the publication.

Founded on the idea that AI doesn’t need to live in massive, centralized data centers, webAI has developed an on-device system designed to let enterprises deploy AI, while keeping sensitive data local and private. It gives companies the flexibility of automation and generative AI without handing over proprietary or customer data to the cloud, according to the company’s website.

The company employs about 150 people today and expects to reach 200 soon, with the bulk of its workforce based in Texas. According to the outlet, webAI also has offices in Virginia, focused on public-sector work, and in Michigan. Last fall, it named Jason Rathje — a former MIT research scientist and leader at the Pentagon-backed Office of Strategic Capital and the Air Force’s AFWERX — as president of its public sector.

webAI is also pushing into new territory, including aviation and connected devices, while preparing to launch a consumer-facing product that applies AI to personal data without uploading it elsewhere, according to the company’s website.

— Eric Weilbacher