HIV‐1 buds from the surface of activated T lymphocytes. In macrophages, however, newly formed HIV‐1 particles amass in the lumen of an intracellular compartment. Here, we demonstrate by live‐cell imaging techniques, by immunocytochemistry and by immuno‐electron microscopy that HIV‐1 structural proteins, particularly the internal structural protein Gag, accumulate at membranes of the late endocytic compartment in a variety of cell types and not just in monocyte/macrophage‐derived cells. Recent biochemical and genetic studies have implicated components of the mammalian vacuolar protein sorting pathway in retroviral budding. Together with those observations, our study suggests that HIV‐1 morphogenesis is thoroughly rooted in the endosomal system.