Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
The company began after Gates and Allen saw the January 1975 issue of Popular Electronics, which featured the Altair 8800 microcomputer. They contacted Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems, the Altair’s manufacturer, and offered a version of the BASIC programming language for the machine. Their interpreter became the company’s first major product.
Microsoft was originally established in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It later moved its headquarters to the Seattle area, where it developed software for personal computers and eventually expanded into operating systems, productivity software, cloud computing, gaming, and hardware.
The year 1975 refers to Microsoft’s founding, not the release of Microsoft Windows. Windows first appeared as a graphical operating environment for MS-DOS in 1985. Microsoft’s long-running products include Windows, Microsoft 365, Azure, Xbox, and the company’s professional networking platform LinkedIn.