Microsoft created the Windows operating system and became the second company to surpass a US$3 trillion market capitalization.
Microsoft crossed the US$3 trillion valuation mark in January 2024, following Apple, which had reached that level earlier. The milestone showed how investors valued Microsoft's cloud computing, software subscriptions, enterprise services, and artificial-intelligence investments.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975. The company became widely known for MS-DOS and Windows, then expanded into Office, Azure cloud services, Xbox, LinkedIn, and professional software.
A market cap is calculated by multiplying the share price by the number of outstanding shares. It changes constantly, so a company's ranking can shift even when its underlying operations have not changed dramatically.