Microsoft is the parent company of Microsoft Azure, one of the world’s largest cloud-computing platforms.
Microsoft Azure is Microsoft’s cloud-computing service. It provides infrastructure, databases, artificial-intelligence tools, developer services, and software delivered through data centers around the world. Azure began as Windows Azure in 2010 and was renamed Microsoft Azure in 2014.
Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. Its early success came from software, especially operating systems and productivity applications. The company later expanded into enterprise services, gaming through Xbox, hardware, professional networking through LinkedIn, and cloud computing.
Azure is central to how investors assess Microsoft because cloud revenue adds a large, recurring business alongside Windows, Office, and other products. Microsoft’s market capitalization represents the value of the whole company rather than Azure alone. The company’s cloud business competes most directly with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.