Microsoft operates Azure and became the second company to reach a $3 trillion market capitalization.
Microsoft briefly reached the $3 trillion valuation on January 24, 2024, after Apple became the first company to achieve that level. The milestone was driven by strong investor expectations for cloud computing and artificial intelligence, particularly through Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI and the integration of AI tools across its products.
Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. Its early dominance came from the MS-DOS and Windows operating systems, followed by Office productivity software. Azure, launched commercially in 2010, became a major cloud-computing business competing with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.
Market capitalization is not the same as a company's cash holdings or total assets. It is the market value of outstanding shares and can move above or below a milestone during a single trading session. Microsoft later became one of the small group of companies whose valuations have exceeded $3 trillion.