When Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) announced its plans to build a new headquarters over two years ago the world took notice. Perhaps the universe took notice. If we are being watched by intelligent beings, you can bet they took notice when Apple released it’s plans.
The Apple HQ looks undeniably like a spaceship. A spaceship capable of holding nearly double the employees that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) presently has working in Cupertino, CA.
If Apple’s headquarters is a spaceship, NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) is apparently planning on building the planet it took off from with an ambitious design of its own. The new building of this growing start-up is being built right across the street from Apple’s headquarters.
With a market capitalization of nearly $8 billion, the three person start-up NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), has had a meteoric rise over the last 20 years. While Apple’s capitalization of over $400 billion dwarfs that of Nvidia, Nvidia has dreams as big as Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s as evidenced in the unveiling of its proposed headquarters today.
The aforementioned start-up of three has grown to a staff of over 8,000 in 40 locations worldwide including offices in Helsinki, Shanghai, Paris, Beijing, Boston, Hong Kong, Bangalore, to name just a few.
The problem, however, according to co-founder, president and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang is that they have no room in Santa Clara, CA.
“We’re absolutely bursting at the seams. So, we’ve decided to build a new campus right across the street, one as distinctive as our company,” he wrote. “The new NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) building will capture the ambition and imagination of our people. It will stand at the intersection of science and art, just as our work in visual computing does. It will be the symbol, the physical manifestation, of our vision for the company.”
And it is distinctive thanks to rising star Hao Ko, design director for Gensler’s San Francisco architecture studio. Ko is also a member of the U.S Green Building Council, and it shows.
The elegant design escapes this writer’s skills of description and he will gladly defer to a picture and additional words from the NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO’s blog post on the subject.
“The design harmonizes smart functionality and a shape that connects with and inspires our employees – a triangle, the fundamental building block of computer graphics. Efficient in every way, the design is thoughtful in its use of space, energy, and environment, and, of course, cost,” Huang’s post read. “Its vast open floors will facilitate our cross-functional work. The nature of building our products requires experts from multiple disciplines to come together, and this building is designed above all for collaboration.”
Let’s hope this trend of building innovation continues.
