Sam Altman Crypto Startup Leases 82,400 SF Building

Tools for Humanity has leased an 82,400-square-foot historic office building in Showplace Square.

The San Francisco- and German-based cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence eyeball recognition firm co-founded by Sam Altman inked a deal for the three-story brick building at 600 Townsend Street East, the San Francisco Business Times reported.

Terms of the deal with landlord LBA Realty, based in Irvine, were not disclosed.

In October 2023, the one-time owner of the now 117-year-old building bought it back from New York-based Blackstone Group for just over $24 million, or $292 per square foot. The then-vacant building had once been fully leased by Salesforce, then occupied by Airbnb.

LBA had since marketed the building as a single-tenant headquarters, according to its website.

Tools for Humanity now occupies 10,000 square feet at 650 California Street; that lease is expected to expire this fall. It’s not clear when it will relocate to 600 Townsend.

The tech firm, once known as World, had been in talks to lease 70,000 square feet at Mission Rock’s Building B, but the deal abruptly fizzled this year, according to the Business Times.

Tools for Humanity, founded in 2019 by CEO Alex Blania and Chairman Sam Altman, officially “launched” in 2023 with the goal of creating a global digital identity system by scanning the eyeballs of everyone on earth, according to the newspaper.

It kicked off with 1,500 scanning devices scattered around major cities, including San Francisco, New York and Miami. Participants receive periodic payments in the company’s proprietary cryptocurrency, Worldcoin.

— Dana Bartholomew