Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and trades under the ticker MSFT.
Microsoft is one of the world’s largest companies by market capitalization, supported by businesses spanning software, cloud computing, gaming, enterprise services, and hardware. Its Azure cloud platform and subscription-based Microsoft 365 products are major parts of its modern business.
The company’s ticker symbol is MSFT, while its shares are listed on the Nasdaq. This distinguishes Microsoft from other large technology companies such as Meta Platforms, Oracle, and Cisco, each of which has a different symbol and corporate history.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975. The company first became widely known for software used with personal computers, especially its MS-DOS operating system and Windows. Microsoft’s headquarters are at its corporate campus in Redmond, east of Seattle.