Apple Infinite Loop Campus

Completed between 1992 and 1993, the former corporate headquarters for Apple Inc. consisted of six main buildings within a 32-acre complex east of De Anza Boulevard at Infinite Loop. Apple acquired the property from Four Phase Systems in the early 1990s, a period when leading technology and communications firms began to move from leased space in downtown buildings in order to build a corporate complex designed to reflect the ethos of a university campus. A sprawling second campus, originally called Apple Campus 2, was established further east along I-280 in Cupertino. Now known as Apple Park, the highlight of the new campus is a massive, circular, four-story new headquarters building that was occupied in April 2017. The new headquarters is not open to the public, but the adjacent Apple Park Visitors Center opened in November 2017. The Apple Infinite Loop Campus holds Apple offices and laboratories; the Apple store here closed in January 2024.

Construction started on the headquarters in 1992 and was finished in 1993. The street that the complex is on is called Infinite Loop Drive, and the buildings are all named after the street and numbered one through six. The street is actually named after the infinite loop, which is a computer process that either cannot be finished or starts itself over and often leaves computers unresponsive. The buildings were used solely for research and development for the first four years that the campus was being used by Apple. In 1997, other buildings and tasks were added to the grounds to make it more of a headquarters. 

Apple decided to expand into a second campus in 2006 and construction on Apple Campus 2 began in 2014 after some delays occurred. The new campus sits on 175 acres of land and was predicted to cost billions of dollars to construct. The building was intended to include research facilities as well as housing for employees. The massive, circular, glass four-story Apple Park headquarters building opened in April 2017.

Apple Infinite Loop Campus also was home to the company store (1 Infinity Loop) where visitors could buy a shirt that read “I Visited The Mother Ship." That store closed permanently in January 2024. Store employees were offered positions at the store at the Apple Park Visitors Center (see the links below) adjacent to the new headquarters in Apple Park or at stores in Apple Valley Fair. Store customers were re-directed to purchase at the company's website or app. The rest of the buildings on the Infinity Loop Campus continued in use by Apple Inc.

For those interested in learning more about the history of Apple computers, please consider visiting Steve Jobs' Garage, which is also an entry on Clio.

Clover, Juli. Apple Park Visitor's Center Now Open to the Public, MacRumors. November 17th, 2017. Accessed July 22nd, 2024. https://www.macrumors.com/2017/11/17/apple-park-visitors-center-now-open/.

Farviar, Cyrus. "30 Years of Apple: Assessing Apple's Impact" Macworld March, 2006 (accessed 7/26/16) http://www.macworld.com/article/1050153/30impact.html Ann Brashares, "Steve Jobs Thinks Different." Brookfield, CT: Twenty-First Century Books, 2001.

Kenyon, Jacqui. Apple headquarters are based in several locations, including main campus, which has relocated, Business Insider. December 25th, 2023. Accessed July 22nd, 2024. https://www.businessinsider.com/apple-headquarters-hq.

Rossignol, Joe. Apple's Infinite Loop Store Permanently Closing Next Month, MacRumors. December 21st, 2023. Accessed July 22nd, 2024. https://www.macrumors.com/2023/12/21/apples-infinite-loop-store-closing-next-month/.