Microsoft owns Windows and became the second US$3 trillion company after Apple.
Microsoft’s market capitalization briefly reached US$3 trillion in January 2024 as its share price rose on enthusiasm about cloud computing and artificial intelligence. Apple had reached that valuation earlier, making Microsoft the second company to attain the threshold.
The company was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975. Its Windows operating system became a dominant desktop platform, while Microsoft later expanded through Office, Azure cloud services, Xbox, LinkedIn, and enterprise software.
A common mix-up is treating Microsoft’s market capitalization as its annual sales. Market cap is an equity valuation based on the stock market; revenue is the money the business records from selling products and services. Microsoft’s Azure cloud business and investment in OpenAI helped make artificial intelligence a major part of investor expectations, but Windows remains one of the company’s best-known products.