Apple built its iconic headquarters known as Apple Park out of necessity. Its main office at 1 Infinite Loop was built in the early 1990s, and the tech giant needed more space to meet its rapid growth, having already used up a lot of the available office space in Cupertino.
Steve Jobs set Apple’s vision for its role in the computer industry, and almost a decade after retaking control of the company in 1997, he set another vision—this time for the company’s headquarters to move into the 21st century. Jobs wouldn’t be around to see his vision come to life when the new headquarters—which includes over four miles of walking and jogging trails—opened in 2017. But it’s certainly a part of his legacy.
Here’s what you need to know about where Apple’s headquarters are located and what it took to build them.
Where is Apple’s headquarters?
Apple’s headquarters are located on a 175-acre property in Cupertino, California, where the company has had its main offices since shortly after being incorporated in 1977.
Known as Apple Park, the four-story, ring-shaped building replaced the tech giant’s original headquarters at 1 Infinite Loop, which was its main office from 1993 to 2017. Apple Park’s other names include Apple Campus 2 and “The Spaceship,” due to its massive circular shape.
Construction began in 2014 and involved demolishing buildings on a former Hewlett-Packard campus. Apple employees began moving into Apple Park in 2017.
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How much did it cost to build Apple’s headquarters?
The cost for the construction of Apple’s headquarters was reportedly around $5 billion. Apple reportedly paid about $300 million for a 98-acre parcel of land that was once Hewlett-Packard’s campus, according to Cnet. That site was adjacent to 50 acres that Apple bought in 2006 for an undisclosed amount.
Jobs presented his replacement-and-rebuild proposal to the Cupertino City Council in June 2011, just a few months before his death, saying that construction of a curved building wouldn’t be “the cheapest way to build something.” The office would be built of curved glass since Apple had architectural experience using glass as a primary building material for its retail outlets. Jobs likened the building to a spaceship landing on the ground.
How much are Apple’s headquarters worth?
Apple is one of the biggest property holders in Santa Clara County, of which Cupertino is a part. Apple Park is Apple’s main property holding in Cupertino (although it still maintains its 32-acre former campus at 1 Infinite Loop for offices and labs), and based on Santa Clara’s 2024 annual report, the assessed value of Apple’s property was $3.287 billion.
The company paid $38.7 million in property taxes for the fiscal year 2023–24. By comparison, Google had the largest assessed property, at $11 billion, and paid $131 million in property taxes.
The county’s report didn’t provide details as to whether the assessed property value was for one particular property or a set of properties.
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What are the features of Apple’s headquarters?
Steve Jobs oversaw the design of Apple Park beginning in 2006, envisioning a spaceship-like building that would accommodate 12,000 employees. In a broadcast saved on YouTube, he presented his replacement-and-rebuild proposal to the Cupertino City Council in June 2011, just a few months before his death. Apple’s headquarters marked a notable departure from the architectural styles of other buildings in the area.
Apple Park features an office and a research-and-development building that covers 2.8 million square feet. Its prominent features include a 1,000-seat auditorium, a 100,000 square-foot fitness center, 92,000 square feet of utility facilities, and more than 8,000 square feet of combined parking space. There’s also a visitors center with an Apple Store and a cafe open to the public.
Its environmentally friendly features included more than 9,000 native and drought-resistant trees (including about 700 fruit trees) that replaced about 3,710 existing trees. Apple said the facility was also completely powered by renewable energy.
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Who designed Apple’s headquarters?
Foster + Partners designed Apple Park. The architectural firm was appointed to the project in 2009, and Apple Park was completed in 2017. Demolition of the site began in late 2013, and ground was broken in 2014. The firm’s founder, Norman Foster, was also the architect behind the iconic HSBC headquarters building in Hong Kong.
Foster + Partners’ design increased the green space at Apple Park to 80% from 20% in the previous area.
Where was Apple’s original office?
Steve Jobs said at the June 2011 public meeting with the Cupertino City Council that Apple had always been located in Cupertino, and the new headquarters was meant to maintain Apple’s dedicated presence in the city.
Apple’s first corporate headquarters was at 1 Infinite Loop, about a mile from Apple Park, and served as its main office from 1993 to 2017. When it was incorporated in 1977, its first office was in Cupertino, and the company kept other offices in the city before moving to 1 Infinite Loop in 1993.
Cupertino isn’t far (about 7 miles) from Los Altos, a residential area where Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak assembled Apple’s early computers out of the garage of Jobs’ childhood home in 1976.
In the few years since it opened, the property’s assessed value has fallen somewhat.
