Inside Microsoft's Crazy Headquarters, Microsoft Campus Tour, Mini City, Insane Microsoft HQ

Microsoft is one of those corporations that have single-handedly changed the course of the world in the last four decades. You will be hard-pressed to find a person who has access to some form of technology who hasn't heard the name Microsoft or Bill Gates. Microsoft is simply one of the most influential corporations of this age, hands down. Achieving this level of success isn't easy. You can count the corporations that have achieved this level of success on one hand, One thing that all these corporations have in common is their focus on creating a workplace that can allow their employees to focus on work and increase their efficiency and productivity. This is one main reason why companies like Microsoft are able to be so productive and successful. They understand the need to make the working environment as comfortable as possible for their employees. The more your employees feel at home, the better they will be able to perform. This is why all these corporations have offices that are very different from a typical corporate office. If you work in a company like Microsoft, then you do not get up every day to go to work. No, you wake up every day ready to be productive and use your creative juices to create new ideas and bring them to fruition so that your ideas can impact and change the lives of millions across the globe. In this video, we are going to take a look inside Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington, the place where world-changing technology has been conceptualized and developed since 1985. But before we get into it, make sure you smash that like button and subscribe to our channel for more awesome videos like this. Microsoft bought roughly 29 acres of real estate in 1985, just one year before it went public, and the company moved into their new headquarters the very next year in 1986. Back in the early days, the Microsoft HQ had only six buildings with the capacity to house roughly 800 employees. This was all the company needed back in 1986 when it hadn't grown into a global corporation. Over the years as the company grew in size, so did its need for more space and more buildings that could be used to create separate divisions. As a result, the company kept on expanding the HQ over the years to the point where today the total covered area of the HQ is over 8 million square feet with a capacity to house over 50,000 employees. The headquarters today is so big that if it were to be ranked by population alone, then it would be the 27th largest city in the state of Washington. The HQ is almost as big as a town, which is why it's known as the campus. The campus now houses over 125 different buildings. Now, when you've got a workplace that's this big, how do you get around? We think about Harvard, Yale, or Oxford. These are big universities, with campus buildings that are very far apart from each other. Sometimes students walk to their classes, but they also use shuttles that can take students from one place to another. This is exactly the solution that Microsoft came up with to help their employees and visitors commute inside the campus. Microsoft has its own fleet of hybrid buses and cars called Shuttle Connect. Shuttle Connect is a part of the plan to reduce their carbon emissions to zero within the next 10 years. The employees use this service to commute from one building to another. The campus itself is well connected through rail and road, so the employees and visitors can easily access the campus through buses and cars. The campus has got everything in it, and when we say everything, we mean everything. There's a mall, restaurants, parks, ponds, recreational areas with cricket pitches, basketball courts, volleyball courts, and football grounds, spaces for indoor and outdoor games, running tracks, pools, dedicated buildings for research and development, visitor area, salons, garages, banks, you name it. The aim behind making sure that the campus has every facility that any city has is to make the employees feel completely at home. We can see that this strategy is working because Microsoft has managed to increase its year-on-year revenue and profits and is still the tech giant that it was a couple of decades ago. If you ever get the opportunity to visit the campus, the first building you're going to see is the Building 92, which is also known as the Visitor Center. This is where Microsoft has put all of its current tech on display for visitors who come to learn more about the company. The building is a museum where visitors can see how the company has grown from its inception to where it is today. Visitors can also get to check out some of the discontinued and legacy products such as Windows 95 and 98, bringing back some of the nostalgic memories of the early days of the internet. The Visitor Center also has a LinkedIn photo booth. Since Microsoft owns LinkedIn, it makes sense for it to allow people to take pictures and update their profiles on LinkedIn in the hope of getting a job at the campus. Visitors will also find a Forza simulator, where they can have a go at the famous racing game you'll find in arcades across the country. Gamers will want to head over to the Xbox area, where the latest games and console-related gadgets are put on display for visitors to see and try out. Visitors can also visit the AI and Mixed Reality portals, where Microsoft has put some of the latest tech on display. The Mixed Reality area has an area where visitors can try out the latest headsets that can allow the user to interact with holograms, not in VR but in real life. Seeing this brings the realization that while the world is trying to catch up with VR, Microsoft is already developing the next-gen Mixed Reality headsets. There's also a merchandise shop in the Visitor Center, where visitors can buy Microsoft merchandise to remember their visit, or they can head over to the theater, which is used for product presentations and demonstrations. If you're on a tour, chances are you'll see Building 8. The building itself is pretty ordinary looking from the outside, but it's the history that makes it special. Building 8 is where Bill Gates met his future wife Melinda while working on a project. Who knows, maybe this building is still making the Microsoft workers find their soulmates. Moving on to the next building, which is Building 33. This is the conference center and not usually open to public visitors. This building is only reserved for Enterprise clients, so unless you have a special approval to visit, you won't be allowed in. Building 33 is where ideas are conceptualized. This is where Microsoft works with Enterprise clients to visualize the future. Not every idea that gets visualized here will see daylight, just like every prototype doesn't enter into mass production. Building 33 is therefore the area where ideas that affect our future are conceptualized and developed. Just next to Building 33 is Building 34, and no, visitors are not allowed to go there either because Building 34 houses the office of the CEO. This is where the decision making takes place. The next building that you can visit if you're on a tour is The Commons, which is a shared amenity area. It's a proper shopping mall that opened on the campus in 2009, however, it's currently closed due to the pandemic. The Commons is a proper and complete shopping mall. It's got a food court, banks and credit unions, high-end retail shops, music stores, and clinics. There are phone carrier shops, but you can only buy Microsoft phones in The Commons, which is quite obvious. Why would Microsoft sell iPhones or Androids in its own HQ? You can find bands playing music in the lobby. There's an arcade where employees can come to kill some time. There's even a bike shop because a lot of Microsoft employees prefer to use a bike to commute around the campus. The Commons is surrounded by buildings that have been codenamed Studio A, B, C, D, E, and so on. Studio B is the building that was used to develop the Surface tablet in total secrecy. Nobody knew what was happening in Studio B between 2009 and 2012 till Microsoft released the Surface tablet. The same can be said for the other Studio buildings. They're probably being used to develop super-secret products that Microsoft will launch in the future. For all we know, they could be carrying out tests on aliens, working on human-machine interface devices, or designing next-gen AI that will rule over humanity. Secrets here are very closely guarded, and no one can enter any of the Studio buildings without clearance. Studio B also has a model shop that houses the latest 3D printing technology. The researchers and engineers working here use the 3D printers to test prototypes. Moving on from Studio B, the Commons isn't the only place where you'll find places to eat out. Just opposite the Commons is the Spitfire Grill, where you can go if you have a liking for grilled food, or you can head over to Building 16 that houses Cafe 16. The next stop on your tour is going to take you to the original six buildings that were built in 1985. These buildings serve as offices that the public is allowed to visit and take pictures in. The offices in these buildings are designed with a corporate yet modern look. You've got cabins and desks, but then you also come across brightly colored conference rooms, billiard tables, corridors where it's mandatory to greet each other with a high-five, whiteboards where employees can scribble down their spontaneous ideas, and modified cabins that look like a gamer's den. And there are also free snacks for everyone, because why not? The next stop is going to take you to the Maker Garage. The Garage is a space where employees can come for their side projects. The Garage is fitted with power tools, machine tools, and other types of tools and equipment that the employees may need to complete their projects. The Garage is referenced to the humble beginnings of the company when Paul Allen and Bill Gates put in countless hours to start up and grow their company, Microsoft, which today is changing our lives and the future. The campus is too big to be discussed in a single video, and it hides many secrets within itself. Even those who work there cannot claim to know everything about the campus. All we know is that the campus is where world-changing ideas are born and rolled out into the world. What do you think about Microsoft's headquarters? Would you like to go for a tour through the campus? Let me know in the comments below. If you guys enjoyed today's video, don't forget to subscribe to the channel and press the bell icon to stay updated whenever we release a new video. Other than that, thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next one.