Seattle's Overland AI opens Bay Area outpost, flipping the regional tech talent script. Silicon Valley companies have spent decades coming to Seattle for engineering talent. Now Seattle-based Overland AI is returning the favor. The autonomous ground vehicle maker announced Wednesday that it's opening an office in Burlingame, Calif., to tap into what it calls a world-leading AI and robotics talent pool in the Bay Area. Located on the San Francisco Peninsula, the new facility will serve as a hub for software engineering and robot operations. The space includes a dedicated command center where operators can remotely task and control Overland's autonomous ground vehicles across the globe. The startup touted the location for its proximity to top universities and transit options and said it plans to double its Bay Area headcount over the next six months as it expands development of its off-road navigation software. "Establishing a physical presence in the Bay gives us direct access to the deepest pool of AI talent in the world," Jon Fink, CTO at Overland AI, said in a statement. The move flips the long-standing dynamic between Silicon Valley and the Pacific Northwest. For years, Bay Area tech giants like Google, Meta, and Apple have built engineering outposts across Seattle to tap into the region's cloud computing and systems talent. Just look at GeekWire's list of such engineering centers. But as autonomy and robotics race forward, Overland AI is reversing the talent migration, establishing its own Northern California beachhead to recruit engineers right in Silicon Valley's backyard. Founded in 2022 as a spinout from the University of Washington, Overland AI builds software and hardware for uncrewed military land vehicles designed to navigate complex, off-road terrain without GPS. The startup has raised over $140 million in venture funding, including a $100 million Series A led by 8VC in February. It recently secured a $19.7 million U.S. Marine Corps contract to manufacture self-driving supply vehicles. In 2025, Overland opened a 22,000-square-foot production facility in the Rainer Beach neighborhood south of downtown Seattle.

Overland AI is opening a new office in Burlingame, California, to support its rapid engineering expansion. The Seattle-headquartered company, founded in 2022, builds autonomous ground vehicles for defence and commercial applications. The Bay Area location will serve as a software engineering and robot operations centre. Teams will develop technology enabling single-operator control of robotic fleets and manage a operations centre for Overland's autonomous vehicles worldwide. The company selected Burlingame for its proximity to San Francisco and Silicon Valley talent pools, with access to top universities and transport links. Overland AI plans to double its current Bay Area headcount over the next six months. "Establishing a physical presence in the Bay gives us direct access to the deepest pool of AI talent in the world," said Jon Fink, chief technology officer.

A $500 million bet on ground autonomy. Forterra has been building autonomous vehicles for 20 years. The company has raised more than $500 million in venture funding from investors including XYZ Venture Capital and Moore Strategic Partners. It was named one of Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies of 2026. The Ukraine deployment gives Forterra something its competitors don't have: real combat data. Nine months of missions in an active war zone, with all the mud, electronic warfare, software failures, and hard lessons that come with it. That data is gold for winning future U.S. military contracts. The competition is growing fast. Scout AI raised $100 million earlier this year to build foundation models for military autonomous platforms. Overland AI has raised $142 million and partnered with Anduril on autonomous vehicle demonstrations. Field AI is also trialing UGVs with the U.S. military. Ukraine alone is expected to acquire 30,000 unmanned ground vehicles in 2026, up from roughly 2,000 in 2024. The market is exploding. One request from the front lines: make it cheaper. The Ukrainians gave Forterra a clear challenge. Bring the cost down. The Lancers aren't expensive for their category, partly because they're built on Polaris' commercial supply chain rather than custom military hardware. But they're still too valuable to throw around the way Ukraine deploys cheap FPV drones by the thousands. Drones work because they're expendable. When a $500 FPV drone gets shot down, nobody blinks. When a Lancer gets stuck in mud and Russian forces zero in on it, that's a real loss. Until the cost drops, commanders will keep holding them back from the riskiest missions. "Ground autonomy is achievable now and we've seen it," Wilkens said. The question is whether it can be made cheap enough and smart enough to change how wars are fought, not just how supplies are moved. For Forterra, the nine months in Ukraine are proof of concept. For the soldiers using the vehicles every day, it's simpler than that. They need more of them. And they need them to cost less.