Microsoft is the company represented by the stock ticker MSFT and has ranked among the world's largest companies by market capitalization.
Microsoft trades on the Nasdaq stock exchange under the symbol MSFT. Its market value is determined by multiplying the current share price by the number of outstanding shares, so its position among the world's largest companies changes as markets move.
Founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, Microsoft became dominant through MS-DOS and Windows personal-computer software. It later expanded into Office, Azure cloud computing, Xbox, LinkedIn, enterprise software, and other businesses.
The ticker MSFT is sometimes confused with similarly abbreviated financial symbols, but it uniquely identifies Microsoft on the U.S. market. The company is also a member of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and a major constituent of broad stock-market indexes.