A Manhattan-based artificial intelligence company that got its start just two years ago is about to go from a scrappy startup to a major employer in the Union Square area. Governor Kathy Hochul announced that Aaru will expand its operations in New York City, creating more than 650 new jobs over the next five years and growing its workforce from roughly 60 employees to more than 700.
Aaru plans to make New York the permanent home of its research and development operations, according to Empire State Development, New York’s chief economic development agency. As part of the plan, the company will lease and build out more than 27,000 square feet of office space near Union Square to house its growing staff. Aaru describes itself as an AI company that helps businesses test products and ideas before they ever hit the market, using language models and what it calls orchestrated AI instances that mirror real humans to simulate entire populations. On its own careers page, the company puts it bluntly: “Aaru simulates entire populations with unprecedented accuracy.”
A Teen-Founded Startup Bets Big on New York
Aaru was founded in New York City in 2024, and according to La Voce di New York, it was started by teenagers that same March. Cameron Fink, the company’s co-founder and CEO, said Aaru deliberately chose to build the company in New York City, and its founders are remaining in the city as it scales up. The company says its simulations let partners validate concepts and messaging before launch, optimize pricing decisions, refine strategy, and deploy marketing campaigns — work it claims can shrink product innovation timelines from months down to minutes.
Hochul framed the expansion as part of a broader pattern of AI companies betting on the state. “Aaru is the latest proof that promising AI companies choose New York,” she said, adding that the state’s investments in computing power, research and talent are bringing companies, jobs and investment to New York. Hope Knight, Empire State Development’s president, CEO and commissioner, also weighed in on the deal, per LongIsland.com.
New Jobs Span Engineering to Legal Tech
The new positions will span software engineering, computer and information research, product development, enterprise sales, client management and corporate operations. Aaru’s own listings already reflect that range: the company’s careers page shows openings for an Engineer, Infrastructure Security; an Engineering Manager, Simulation; a Researcher, Population Simulation; and even a Legal Engineer focused on litigation and regulatory work, all based in New York City.
Empire State Development has offered Aaru up to $13.12 million in performance-based Excelsior tax credits tied to the expansion, and Aaru has committed to creating 650 jobs and spending $109 million on research and development.
Part of a Broader AI Hiring Wave
Aaru’s expansion lands amid a run of AI and tech companies either planting flags in New York or deepening their presence there. PayPal and iCapital have committed since 2024 to creating thousands of jobs and expanding their New York City footprint, while ElevenLabs has announced plans to create 230 jobs in downtown Manhattan. Radical AI, meanwhile, has said it will convert an office into an advanced materials science lab and add 115 jobs in Brooklyn, establishing what the Brooklyn Paper described as New York’s first fully autonomous materials science lab at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, a $4 million project.
The numbers behind that hiring wave are striking. New York City’s tech sector has added jobs at nearly ten times the rate of the city’s overall economy since the pandemic began, according to the Center for an Urban Future, with tech employment up 26.2% from 2019 to 2024 compared with just 2.7% growth in private-sector jobs overall. CBRE’s 2026 Scoring Tech Talent report found that the New York metro area now employs nearly 395,000 tech workers, surpassing the San Francisco Bay Area in tech employment for the first time in the report’s 13-year history.