Microsoft became the first company to reach a $3 trillion market capitalization after Apple.
Microsoft crossed the threshold in January 2024 as investors responded to strong expectations for cloud computing, enterprise software, and artificial-intelligence products. Its Azure cloud platform and investments connected to OpenAI became especially important parts of the market narrative.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975. The company first became widely known for operating-system software, including MS-DOS and Windows, before expanding into productivity software, servers, cloud services, gaming, and hardware.
Microsoft’s achievement followed Apple’s earlier $3 trillion milestones. The figure refers to the market value of publicly traded equity, not the company’s annual revenue, cash, or total economic contribution.