Microsoft became the world’s most valuable company after surpassing General Electric in December 1998.
The change reflected Microsoft’s dominance in personal-computer operating systems and productivity software during the late 1990s. Windows and Microsoft Office generated substantial profits, while the company’s shares benefited from investors’ expectations about continued software growth. Microsoft’s market capitalization briefly made it the leading public company globally.
The company had been founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Its rise came before the large-scale expansion of cloud computing, social media, and smartphone platforms that later reshaped technology rankings. Microsoft’s position was not permanent: market leadership changed as the dot-com bubble, the financial crisis, and new technology industries altered share prices. A market-cap record concerns the value assigned by public markets, not which company has the highest revenue.