1MB has been the U.S. headquarters for seven years. Now it will house operations for all of North America. Credit: Mercedes-Benz USA

At a time of turmoil in the global automotive sector, German auto maker Mercedes-Benz is deepening its investment in a location that has proven to be a safe bet: metro Atlanta. 

Mercedes-Benz moved its U.S. headquarters to a new building known as 1MB in the Sandy Springs suburb in 2018, an outpost that originally promised 1,000 workers and now employs about 800. 

The company announced on May 22 that up to 500 more would join them by next August as it doubles down on the location, making the sleek office, complete with an EV charging hub, its mothership not just for the United States but the whole North American market.

Those new jobs will be brought to Atlanta in large part from Farmington Hills, Mich., where corporate and financial services are currently located. Those teams will join sales and marketing at 1MB.

Mercedes-Benz also noted that it would locate a new research and development hub “near Sandy Springs,” bringing technical talent to the metro area from around its U.S. system. 

The move is designed to situate the company better within the city’s growing tech talent pool, including new engineering grads coming out of universities like Georgia Tech. It also aims to deepen collaborations with emerging startups. 

“Bringing our teams closer together will enable us to be more agile, increase speed to market and ensure the best customer experience,” said Jason Hoff, who took up the newly created Mercedes-Benz North America CEO position on May 1, in a news release. 

Details were scant on the R&D hub, other than saying it would be a “multimillion-dollar investment,” and hinting that it will not be co-located at the Sandy Springs office. 


“We will share additional details on the R&D facility and functions as soon as we can. We look forward to our future R&D facility and bringing more technical roles to the state,” a spokesperson told Global Atlanta. 

At its original opening seven years ago, the company unveiled a teased a mobility incubator that it was planning for Buckhead. 

The Lab1886 office, tasked with dreaming up big ideas for portfolio companies within the Daimler family, was staffed with leaders from China, Germany and California. When the opening came around, Lab1886 parked a Volocopter, an early drone taxi (which later went bankrupt), in the courtyard of the Terminus building where it had rented a WeWork space. Then-Gov. Nathan Deal and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms attended, getting an earful about the company’s bets on the future of mobility. 

Volocopter graced the opening of Lab1886 in 2018, led by Susanne Hahn. Then-Gov. Nathan Deal met up with dignitaries including Guy Kawasaki, tech Evangelist and brand ambassador for Mercedes-Benz. Credit: Mercedes-Benz USA

But in December 2020, Daimler spun off 1886Ventures, which it had formed from Lab1886, retaining 10 percent of the fund. The Atlanta office closed less than two years after the star-studded opening featuring marketing expert and technology evangelist Guy Kawasaki and other luminaries. 

Mercedes-Benz, meanwhile, has continued to grow in the U.S, where the German luxury brand points out that it has been present for more than 120 years. 

In April, amid the throes of President Trump’s automotive tariffs, the company announced that it would make its GLC midsize SUV at the Tuscaloosa, Ala., factory, where the majority of production is exported. 

Accounting for 8,000 direct manufacturing jobs in the United States, and 11,100 overall, Mercedes-Benz is heavily concentrated in the Southeast U.S. Beyond the Alabama factory, it also makes its Sprinter cargo vans in South Carolina. Mercedes-Benz sold 374,100 passenger cars and vans in the U.S. in 2024. 

Global Atlanta’s reporting timeline on the Mercedes-Benz HQ in Atlanta: 

As managing editor of Global Atlanta, Trevor has spent 15+ years reporting on Atlanta’s ties with the world. An avid traveler, he has undertaken trips to 30+ countries to uncover stories on the perils...