Microsoft history: A short origin story of the tech giant

From Windows and Azure to Word and Xbox, Microsoft’s (MSFT) products have made it a household name and tech powerhouse.

In 2023 alone, the company generated over $211 billion in revenue, and currently boasts a market cap of more than $3 trillion, making it the wealthiest publicly traded company in the world.

What led to that success? Beyond the Ticker takes a closer look at the company's biggest moments.

1975

Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975 to develop software for the Altair 8800, an early personal computer.

1980

Microsoft signed a contract with IBM (IBM) to bundle Microsoft's operating system, an early version of its MS-DOS, with IBM computers.

1985

Microsoft announced the first version of Windows, an operating system composed of a graphical user interface running on top of MS-DOS.

1986

On March 13, 1986, Microsoft kicked off its IPO, raising $61 million at $21 per share.

1995

On August 24, 1995, Microsoft launched Windows 95. The software would go on to be wildly popular among PC consumers and enterprise customers.

2000

Steve Ballmer took the reins at Microsoft, succeeding Bill Gates as the company’s second CEO.

2001

The company jumped headlong into the console gaming wars with the debut of the first Xbox.

2008

Microsoft dove into the cloud computing space with its Azure service.

2014

Ballmer retired as Microsoft CEO, turning over the position to Satya Nadella.

2019

Microsoft’s market cap crossed the $1 trillion mark for the first time.

2023

Microsoft kicked off its push into generative AI with a $10 billion investment in ChatGPT developer OpenAI, and the debut of several generative AI products including its revamped Bing search engine and Copilot software.

The company is now riding the AI hype train as far as it can, adding generative AI software to everything from Office to Windows and everything in between.
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