The Seattle Times reports that Apple has quietly opened an engineering office in Seattle, one positioned to operate in “the shadow of Microsoft.” The end goal, according to the report, is to siphon up local software talent, purportedly to build out Apple’s cloud infrastructure.

But beyond that, though, not much is known about the outpost. A since-deleted LinkedIn post by Apple manager Benn Bollay seemed to suggest that company was putting out feelers for talent. Its title:

“Ever wanted to work at Apple, but didn’t want to live in Cupertino?”

Microsoft and Amazon’s competitors have been encroaching on their territory. Google recently doubled the size of its campus in 2013 to work on cloud computing. And Rift VR–which is owned by Facebook–earlier this year opened an R&D lab in Seattle, hiring former Valve engineer Atman Binstock as its chief architect. Small wonder Seattle’s rent prices are climbing.

[h/t: Seattle Times]