Office profile
Microsoft Headquarters & offices · Redmond, Washington
Microsoft · Redmond, Washington
17 new buildings, sports fields and a treehouse on a 520-acre campus — and 80 hours a year of Holistic Health Time Off.
The buildings, the treehouses, time off and 50 years of office moves, from Albuquerque in 1975 to Redmond today — then pay by level. Every number comes from Microsoft's own filings and official pages.
- 39,100 → 223,000people, 2000 → 2026
- 80 hrswellbeing time off a year (U.S.)
- $200,972median employee pay
- $1.5Mrevenue per employee
Sources: Form 10-K FY2026 · Proxy statement 2025 · Microsoft U.S. corporate pay page · news.microsoft.com
Companies / United States / Software & cloud / Microsoft
THE CAMPUS TODAY · REDMOND
Seventeen new buildings on a campus that already had 125
Microsoft began rebuilding its Redmond headquarters in 2019: 17 new buildings and 6.7 million sq ft of renovated workspace, with room for up to 8,000 more people, plus sports fields and green space. Around it, the older campus keeps its trees, plazas and even treehouses.
- ≈ 500 acres
- ≈ 12 million sq ft owned
- 17 new buildings
- 6.7 million sq ft renovated
- $150M for transport and public space
Around the Redmond campus
Microsoft offices elsewhere
Facts: news.microsoft.com (“Then and now: Microsoft’s campus”, “Microsoft moves to Redmond”) · Form 10-K FY2026, Item 2. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, credited on each photo. Some photos: Microsoft (news.microsoft.com).
The Redmond campus
| Building | Address |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052 |
Source: news.microsoft.com, “Facts about Microsoft” · See them on the map ↓
Source: Form 10-K FY2026, Item 2. Properties
Office tour videos
Benefits (United States)
Up to 10 scheduled paid holidays per calendar year.
Up to 80 hours a year.
Hourly employees accrue up to 120 hours of paid vacation.
Discretionary Time Off.
401(k) plan with company match.
Medical, dental and vision; short- and long-term disability; basic life insurance.
Merit increases, annual bonus and stock for eligible roles.
Physical, emotional and financial wellness programs.
Source: careers.microsoft.com, “Corporate U.S. base pay ranges and additional pay information” · Form 10-K FY2026
What Microsoft says it offers to keep people
U.S. employees get up to 80 hours a year, on top of holidays.
Salaried U.S. employees have discretionary time off instead of a fixed allowance.
Certain roles are eligible for merit increases, an annual bonus and stock awards.
Medical, dental and vision insurance, and a 401(k) plan with a company match.
Access to a wide range of internal and external learning content.
Microsoft says it monitors pay equity across multiple dimensions.
Source: Form 10-K FY2026, Human Capital Resources · careers.microsoft.com U.S. corporate pay information
Who works here
full-time employees (June 30, 2026)
in product research and development
in the United States
outside the U.S.
Source: Form 10-K FY2026, Human Capital Resources
Pay at Microsoft
The CEO earned 480 times this amount ($96.5 million).
Source: Proxy statement 2025 (CEO pay ratio)
Source: Microsoft job postings 1970393556981927, …872425 and …958760 (2026). Higher ranges apply in the San Francisco Bay Area and New York City. Base pay only.
U.S. companies don't have to report pay by age, and Microsoft doesn't. Pay by level is the closest official number.
Compare Microsoft with: Apple · Google · Amazon
Office history: from Albuquerque to a 500-acre campus
- 1975 Founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft in 1975 in Albuquerque. The company's first office was in Two Park Central Tower, a 10-storey building downtown.
Source: news.microsoft.com, “Facts about Microsoft” (1975, Albuquerque) · building as reported by Construction Reporter
Two Park Central Tower, Albuquerque, 2026 · Xnatedawgx / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 1979 Move to Bellevue, Washington
On January 1, 1979, Microsoft moved from Albuquerque to Bellevue, near Seattle.
Source: news.microsoft.com, “Facts about Microsoft”
No free-to-use photo found yet.Have one? We’d love to add it. - 1986 The Redmond campus opens
On February 26, 1986, Microsoft moved to a new corporate campus in Redmond: six X-shaped buildings on a 30-acre wooded lot, around a pond nicknamed “Lake Bill”.
Source: news.microsoft.com, “Facts about Microsoft” and “Microsoft moves to Redmond”
Building 42, Redmond, 2007 · Jeff Wilcox / CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 1992 260 acres, 1.7 million sq ft
Six years after moving in, the campus had grown to 260 acres with 1.7 million sq ft of offices.
Source: news.microsoft.com, “Microsoft moves to Redmond”
A plaza on the campus, 2006 · Jonathan Schilling / CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons - 2009 The Commons and a campus of 125 buildings
The Commons, a shops-and-food hub for employees, was completed in 2009. Over time the campus reached 125 buildings and 15 million sq ft on more than 500 acres.
Source: news.microsoft.com, “Then and now” and “Microsoft moves to Redmond”
West Campus, August 2009 · Jelson25 / Public domain · Wikimedia Commons - 2017– Rebuilding the campus
Announced on November 28, 2017: 17 new buildings and 6.7 million sq ft of renovated workspace for up to 8,000 more employees. Demolition started in January 2019.
Source: news.microsoft.com, “Facts about Microsoft” and “Then and now”
The redevelopment, September 2021 · Atomic Taco / CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
| Annual report | HQ space (sq ft) | m² | As described |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | — | — | 30 acres, six buildings (news.microsoft.com) |
| 1992 | 1,700,000 | 157,935 | 260 acres (news.microsoft.com) |
| Later | 15,000,000 | 1,393,545 | 125 buildings on 500+ acres (news.microsoft.com) |
| 10-K 2026 | ≈ 12,000,000 | ≈ 1,114,836 | Owned at HQ on ≈ 520 acres, plus ≈ 2M leased |
Map: how the headquarters moved
About 2,000 km apart: Microsoft started in the desert in New Mexico and has spent most of its life in the woods east of Seattle.
- 1 · 1975–78Albuquerque, New Mexico (Two Park Central Tower)
- 1979–86Bellevue, Washington — not pinned: Microsoft doesn't publish the address
- 2 · 1986–todayOne Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington
Addresses: news.microsoft.com · Locations: OpenStreetMap · Basemap © Esri
What Microsoft does
Microsoft sells the software most offices run on — Windows, Microsoft 365, Teams, LinkedIn, Dynamics — and rents out computing through Azure, its cloud. It also makes Xbox and Surface.
Three reporting segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing.
Where the money came from · revenue by segment, FY2026
Source: Form 10-K FY2026, Segment results of operations
Source: Form 10-K FY2026 (year ended June 30, 2026) · per-employee figures calculated by eciffo
Growth: revenue vs. people
$60.4B → $331.8B
91,000 → 223,000
Fiscal years end June 30. Revenue: SEC XBRL data from Microsoft's 10-K filings. Employees: Form 10-K (FY2022 not shown: we could not read it cleanly). Multiples calculated by eciffo.
Chief executives
Named CEO on February 4, 2014; now Chairman and CEO.
Named president and CEO on January 13, 2000.
Co-founder. Left his day-to-day role on June 27, 2008.
Co-founders: Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
Source: news.microsoft.com, “Facts about Microsoft” · Proxy statement 2025
Microsoft: questions people ask
Where is Microsoft's headquarters?
One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington. Microsoft owns about 12 million sq ft on about 520 acres there and leases about 2 million more nearby.
Source: news.microsoft.com · Form 10-K FY2026
How many people work at Microsoft?
About 223,000 full-time employees as of June 30, 2026: 121,000 in the U.S. and 102,000 elsewhere.
Source: Form 10-K FY2026
How much do Microsoft employees make?
The median employee's total compensation was $200,972 in fiscal 2025. Typical U.S. base pay for software engineering is $102,100–$202,200 at IC3 and $165,600–$296,400 at IC6.
Source: Proxy statement 2025 · Microsoft job postings (2026)
How much time off does Microsoft give?
In the U.S., up to 10 paid holidays and up to 80 hours of Holistic Health Time Off a year. Salaried employees have Discretionary Time Off; hourly employees accrue up to 120 hours of vacation.
Source: careers.microsoft.com
When did Microsoft move to Redmond?
On February 26, 1986. Before that it was in Bellevue (from January 1, 1979) and, at the start, Albuquerque.
Source: news.microsoft.com
How big is the Redmond campus?
About 500 acres. Microsoft's newsroom has described it as 125 buildings and 15 million sq ft; a rebuild announced in 2017 adds 17 new buildings.
Source: news.microsoft.com
Who is Microsoft's CEO?
Satya Nadella, CEO since February 4, 2014 and now also Chairman. Before him: Steve Ballmer (2000–2014) and Bill Gates.
Source: news.microsoft.com
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