Microsoft operates the Azure cloud platform and was founded in 1975.
Microsoft Azure is the company’s cloud-computing platform, offering services for computing, storage, databases, networking, analytics, and artificial intelligence. Azure competes with other large cloud platforms and has become an important part of Microsoft’s enterprise business.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in Albuquerque, New Mexico, on April 4, 1975. The company first developed and licensed software for personal computers, including a version of the BASIC programming language. MS-DOS and later Windows helped make Microsoft a dominant force in desktop computing.
Microsoft’s modern business is broader than Windows. It includes Azure, Microsoft 365, Xbox, LinkedIn, GitHub, search, advertising, and professional software. This distinction matters in market-capitalization comparisons: the company’s valuation reflects the combined expectations for all of these operations, not Azure alone. Microsoft’s name is a blend of “microcomputer” and “software.”