Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen and later became a trillion-dollar technology giant.
The founders created the company after developing a version of the BASIC programming language for the Altair 8800 microcomputer. Microsoft later became dominant in personal-computer software through MS-DOS and Windows.
Its business expanded into productivity software, enterprise services, gaming, search, and cloud computing. Azure, Microsoft’s cloud platform, became an especially important part of the company’s modern growth story and investor valuation.
The word “Microsoft” combines “microcomputer” and “software.” Microsoft is often confused with the company that made the original IBM PC, but IBM produced the computer while Microsoft supplied the operating system that helped define the personal-computer era.