Matt Weinberger/Business Insider
A super-high-pressure waterjet cuts straight through metal in Facebook's Area 404 lab.
But Zuck can't use the steel-cutting, 60,000 PSI waterjets in Area 404 - Facebook's brand new, 22,000 square foot hardware laboratory - because he's not one of the ten or so Facebook employees authorized to even get in the room with them, for safety reasons.
The big idea behind Area 404 is to provide one big space for all of the social network's various teams, including the still-very-mysterious denizens of Building 8, to apply the "Move Fast and Break Things" philosophy to making real physical objects, not just software.
Rather than rely on outside contractors and far-off factories to build their stuff, with Area 404, Facebook now has the facilities, including those serious-business waterjets, to prototype and build that hardware in-house. Better yet, it's tucked into a concrete-reinforced bunker nestled right in Facebook's main Silicon Valley campus.
That's important, as Facebook moves beyond its ongoing efforts to build better servers for itself and into making 3D virtual reality cameras, flying internet-laser drones, and the experimental Terragraph high-speed wireless internet system.
It also means that Area 404 is going to be the place where the first versions of Facebook's coolest, craziest, and most world-changing inventions will be made. Once fully operational, the stuff that goes on in Area 404 will be above top secret.
Luckily for us, Facebook let us tour Area 404 ahead of its official grand opening. Here's a look at the high-tech lab Facebook is using to design its engines of world domination.