Inside the world's largest office built for 65,000 people in the diamond industry
Until 2023, if you'd asked what the largest office building in the world was then the correct answer would have been The Pentagon.
The distinctive building, with its successive layers of offices connected by secure corridors, is the headquarters of the US Department of Defence.
Resembling a star fort, it was completed in 1943 and covers a whopping 620,000 square meters of office space. But while The Pentagon held the title of the largest office in the world for decades, in 2023 it was surpassed by a gargantuan new complex in India.
This is the Surat Diamond Bourse in the Indian state of Gujarat, known for its connection to the trade in precious metals and precious stones.
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The enormous office complex cost around $330 million to construct and covers an astonishing 660,000 square meters, that's around 7.1 million square feet, and is also 269 feet high, in comparison to the Pentagon's 77 feet.
Not only that, but while the Pentagon accommodates 26,000 employees, the Surat Diamond Bourse accommodates 65,000 people.
Approximately 90 percent of all the diamonds in the world are cut and polished in Surat, making the city the perfect location to open a facility like this.
It was also intended to cut down on the need for employees in the industry to commute between Surat and Mumbai, located just over 180 miles down the coast.
The facilities inside the world's largest office building
Opened in 2023 by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the offices have the facilities to cut and polish the diamonds on the site, which covers over 35 acres of land developed by Indian architecture firm Morphogenesis.
The firm has previously spoken about the building being intended 'to be exactly the same for everyone' who works there, CNN reported.
Those 65,000 people would be experts in the diamond trade, including traders, polishers, and cutters.
The site comprises of a long central section that curves outwards into several sections at the end, with nine blocks then jutting out from it at a right angle creating an enormous and striking structure filled with courtyards and state of the art design.
Among the facilities inside include a landscaped meeting area designed to embody a 'relaxed, elegant feeling', according to the building's website, as well as conference rooms and restaurants, as well as facilities for customs clearance, banking, an auction house and secure safe deposit vaults.
But despite the enormous scale and ambition of the project, it has already fallen on difficulties with just two years of its inauguration.
As of 2025 India's diamond exports were at a 20 year low, Reuters reported, with a slump in Chinese demand contributing to part of the slow.
But it was the impact of Donald Trump's tariffs in the US which has led to serious anxiety about access to the US market, which comprised around a third of India's $28.5 billion industry.
Initially a reciprocal tariff of 25 percent was imposed on Indian goods exported to the US, but a continuing row over India's purchasing of Russian oil have led to trade tensions rising, suggesting that things are unlikely to improve anytime soon.
Topics: World News, India
Kit Roberts