FILE - The logo of Microsoft is seen outside its French headquarters in Issy-les-Moulineaux, outside Paris on May 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)
Microsoft is shutting down The Garage, the companywide program that gave employees space and tools for side projects and ran its annual Global Hackathon. The move ends a 17-year run for an effort that started as a small Office Labs experiment in Redmond and grew into maker spaces across 15 regions, from Vancouver and New York to Israel, India and Beijing.
GeekWire first reported the news, citing an internal FAQ, and some Garage spaces could be restricted starting today, October 23.The Garage mattered beyond its workbenches and soldering irons. CEO Satya Nadella was a regular at its hackathons, where employees could put their projects in front of senior executives. Now the internal FAQ tells staff that "the spirit of experimentation that once lived primarily in dedicated programs is now reflected in how teams work every day."
Employees cannot take any equipment, tools or materials with them when the spaces close.
Microsoft says The Garage will no longer run as a centralised program
According to the FAQ, The Garage will stop operating as a centralised function, and the impact on each location will vary. Neither the FAQ nor Microsoft has said which spaces are affected, including the flagship site in Redmond.A Microsoft spokesperson said the company regularly reviews how it uses its physical spaces and is making changes to some Garage locations.
It declined to comment on what happens to Garage employees.The Global Hackathon's future is also unclear. The FAQ says the hackathon team is reimagining the event and will share more later. Microsoft's public Garage website, which showcased hackathon projects and experimental apps, now redirects to the company homepage.
and Seeing AI were born in hackathons
The Garage began in 2009 with the slogan "Doers. Not Talkers." Rather than collecting ideas and funding the popular ones, it backed employees who were already building things on their own.
Its profile grew after Nadella became CEO in 2014. That July, it ran Microsoft's first companywide hackathon, which drew over 11,000 registrants from 80 countries.Several real products came out of it. Seeing AI, the app that describes objects and text for people who are blind or have low vision, started at a 2015 hackathon. The Xbox Adaptive Controller grew out of a hackathon project that used Kinect motion tracking.
The controller was nearly cut over budget concerns before it shipped, The Verge’s Notepad newsletter noted, and went on to star in Microsoft’s 2019 Super Bowl ad. Employee Tuong Do built Mouse Without Borders, which lets one keyboard and mouse control up to four PCs, on evenings and weekends.
Arrow Launcher, another Garage app, later became Microsoft Launcher for Android.
Employees link the Garage closure to Microsoft's wider cost cuts
The shutdown comes as Microsoft spends heavily on AI infrastructure such as data centres while cutting costs and jobs elsewhere.
On Blind, the anonymous workplace app, a post titled "Amy kills the Garage" drew more than 70 comments, with the poster blaming CFO Amy Hood. One employee wrote that the space was where they met friends and made connections that helped their career.It is also the latest in a string of campus closures this year. In January, Microsoft shut its employee libraries in Redmond, Hyderabad, Beijing and Dublin, describing the shift as a move to an "AI-powered learning experience." Its Visitor Center in Redmond's Building 92 closed a month later.The FAQ thanks the employees, volunteers and partners who built The Garage and says Microsoft will carry its legacy forward in new forms. It does not say what those forms will be.