Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen and later became a mega-cap corporation.
The company began after Gates and Allen developed a version of the BASIC programming language for the Altair 8800 microcomputer. Microsoft initially supplied software rather than hardware, but its partnership with IBM helped make MS-DOS a major personal-computer operating system during the 1980s.
Windows later became Microsoft’s most recognizable product family, while Office, Azure, Xbox, LinkedIn, and enterprise software broadened its business. Those multiple revenue streams helped Microsoft become one of the world’s most valuable publicly traded companies by market capitalization.
Microsoft is not the same company as IBM, although IBM’s early personal-computer deal was important to Microsoft’s history. Microsoft’s stock began trading publicly in 1986, decades before its later position among the world’s largest companies.