Hughes Research Lab was established as the research arm of Hughes Aircraft, and was based at its main plant in Culver City, until this new campus was built for it on a hillside overlooking the ocean in Malibu in 1961. Famous for building the first working laser, the lab was mostly engaged in scientific research fundamental to aerospace technologies that were at the core of Hughes’ massive Electronics division, including masers, computational systems, integrated circuits, pattern recognition methods, and much more. In the late 1990s Raytheon and Boeing separately bought most of Hughes’ Electronics division (then held by General Motors), dividing up its missiles, radar, and satellite operations, though the two companies shared the Hughes Research Lab with GM. Today it is operated by Boeing and GM, and called, simply, HRL.