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Watch a drone flyby of Apple's gigantic spaceship campus

Watch a drone flyby of Apple's gigantic spaceship campus

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When 2.8 million square feet just isn't enough

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Apple's new donut-shaped campus will house 13,000 employees scattered about a mind-boggling 2.8 million square feet, a nearly 230 percent bump over the company's current HQ at 1 Infinite Loop. And that doesn't include the 1,000-seat auditorium, nor the 300,000 square feet dedicated solely to R&D facilities. To help you conceptualize a facility of that magnitude, drone pilot and photographer Duncan Sinfield has released a video showing an aerial view of the site under construction.

176 acres and $5 billion later

Using narration from former Apple CEO Steve Jobs' remarks at a Cupertino City Council meeting about the construction project, Sinfield's drone fly-by does a neat job of showing you what has been accomplished in the past 31 days of work. He filmed a similar video back on August 1 and overlays the footage as his DJI Inspire 1 quadcopter swings overhead one month later.

The campus, which reportedly cost more than $5 billion and was designed by architectural firm Foster + Partners, is expected to be finished some time next year or in early 2017. One notable perk: The campus is expected to be a "net-zero energy" facility, meaning it will generate 100 percent of its power from renewable energy sources, including 700,000 square feet of onsite solar panels.