VIDEO – Apple Park: immerse yourself in the heart of one of the most secret places on the planet

Hidden behind the Californian pines, we can hardly guess its presence. Beyond these trees lies one of the most secret places on the planet and one of the most impressive. Welcome to Apple Park, the huge campus designed by Steve Jobs just before his death. As big as 100 football fields, it also houses several, as well as a sports hall and a private medical center for the 12,000 employees of the company.

In the center is the main building, “the ring”, wrapped in the largest bay windows in the world, made to measure. The total cost of this pharaonic HQ is $ 5 billion, the most expensive office building ever. Until now, no camera had been authorized. Discover these unseen images in the TF1 20H report at the top of this article.

During the shooting of the journalists, always accompanied, this culture of secrecy is felt at every moment. Many doors will remain closed and each location filmed is the subject of negotiations. “When Steve Jobs designed Apple Park, he wanted to create the office building of the future. He wanted a place where people come out of the office, where they meet by chance, collaborate and exchange ideas so he wanted it to be. be a place where we walk “, explains Greg Joswiak, vice president in charge of global marketing at Apple.

Pandemic obliges, the building is today emptied of most of its workers, for many teleworking. Contrary to appearances, the few employees crossed do not necessarily take a walk, but practice the traditional meetings while walking, supposed to promote creativity. So, what are they preparing in their closed-access laboratories? One of their priorities is health. Thanks to the success of its connected watch and the data it displays, the brand intends to weigh more and more in this very buoyant market. “Our goal is to provide data that is useful to users and also to their doctors. We don’t want to replace this doctor-patient relationship, but we want to improve it”, assures Dr. Sumbul Desai, vice president in charge of health at Apple.

But how can we be sure that our data is safe in Apple products? “What is very important is that users can choose item by item what data they allow”, replies Dr Desai. “And Apple doesn’t receive or see any of your data. It stays inside the device.”, she continues.

Another shift: that of ecology. The American firm has understood that in the world of tomorrow, producing electronic devices must rhyme with the environment, at the risk of losing customers. The building is therefore supplied only with renewable energies thanks to solar panels installed on the roof. By 2030, all of its manufacturing plants on the planet must be powered by 100% renewable energy, including from Asian subcontractors.

Apple also has a new robot that dismantles rare metals from smartphones for recycling. “This is what our customers expect”, says Lisa Jackson, vice president of environment and social initiatives at Apple. “And for us, that means being more attentive to the materials we use, reusing some of them and innovating to take this recycling into account when designing our products”, she adds.

The responsibility is all the stronger as the company has never been doing so well. Over € 300 billion in sales were made over the past year, equivalent to Denmark’s GDP. With such means, it only remains to find good ideas for the future. “We’re in a position where if we can imagine something, then we can create it. We can make it real.”, concludes Greg Joswiak.

Behind the immense walls of the Apple company, the world of tomorrow is therefore partly preparing, with future innovations which will perhaps experience the same success as its smartphones. According to our information, the company is currently refining augmented reality glasses as well as a fully autonomous electric car that could see the light of day within a few years.