Microsoft went from renter to buyer at its 33-acre Mountain View campus in a high-profile deal with a low-profile real estate investment trust in Silicon Valley.
The $330 million purchase points to deepening roots in the Bay Area for software giant Microsoft, which keeps its headquarters in the Seattle area but has had 2,000 to 3,000 employees operating out of 640,000 square feet of office while renting the Mountain View campus from Mission West Properties, the San Jose Mercury News reported.
The private Cupertino-based REIT made the sale a few months after a report by Reuters it was in talks with a potential buyer. Microsoft paid cash for the campus at 1045 La Avenida Street in Mountain View, which got a major revamp seven years ago.
The property has a prime location in terms of local highways and surface streets, situated at Highway 101 and State Route 85, just off the intersection of North Shoreline Boulevard and La Avenida Street.
The deal offers another spark for the Silicon Valley office market, ranking second-priciest this year behind Nvidia’s $374.4 million purchase of several office buildings at its headquarters campus in Santa Clara. Nvidia has boomed as a maker of chips used by developers of AI, and Microsoft is a significant investor in Nvidia as well as OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT and a major driver of the new technology.
The Microsoft deal appears to be the second-largest real estate purchase in Santa Clara County this year, measured by dollar amount. It’s also one of the largest in the Bay Area in 2024.
The Mountain View campus has marked Microsoft’s biggest presence in the Bay Area for years. The company has bought several other properties in Silicon Valley in recent years, though, including some in Mountain View and vacant land in San Jose.