Microsoft Corporation is an American technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington. It was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen and became one of the defining companies of the personal-computer era through MS-DOS, Windows, Office and later cloud services.
Microsoft's business now covers operating systems, productivity software, cloud computing, developer tools, gaming, devices, cyber-security, search, advertising and business services. Its best-known products and services include Windows, Microsoft 365, Azure, Teams, Outlook, Xbox, Surface, Bing, GitHub, LinkedIn, Visual Studio and Dynamics.
History
Microsoft began as a small software business connected to the Altair 8800 microcomputer. Gates and Allen supplied a BASIC interpreter and then built the company around software for the growing personal-computer market.
The company moved from Albuquerque to Washington state in 1979 and incorporated in 1981. Its early relationship with IBM was central to its growth, because MS-DOS became widely associated with IBM-compatible personal computers. Windows later gave Microsoft a graphical platform that became the dominant desktop environment for home and business PCs.
During the 1990s and 2000s, Microsoft expanded beyond operating systems into Office, server software, internet services, games consoles and enterprise products. The company faced major competition and antitrust scrutiny, especially around Windows, Internet Explorer and control of the PC software market.
Under Satya Nadella, who became chief executive in 2014, Microsoft placed much greater emphasis on cloud computing, subscriptions, open-source development, developer platforms and artificial intelligence services. The company also bought major businesses including LinkedIn and GitHub.
Products and Services
Microsoft's business is broad, but several areas are central:
- Windows is the company's client operating system family for PCs and related devices.
- Microsoft 365 includes Office apps, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint, Exchange and cloud-based business services.
- Azure is Microsoft's cloud platform for hosting, storage, networking, databases, analytics, developer tools and artificial intelligence workloads.
- Xbox covers consoles, games, subscriptions, studios and related services.
- GitHub provides source-code hosting and developer collaboration tools.
- LinkedIn is a professional networking and recruitment platform.
- Surface is Microsoft's hardware line, including laptops, tablets and accessories.
Business Structure
Microsoft reports through three main business segments: Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud, and More Personal Computing. The first includes Microsoft 365, LinkedIn and Dynamics. Intelligent Cloud includes Azure and server products. More Personal Computing includes Windows, devices, gaming, search and advertising.
The company's 2025 annual report gave revenue of 281.7 billion US dollars for the financial year ending 30 June 2025. That figure reflects the scale of Microsoft's shift from boxed software and one-off purchases towards cloud services, subscriptions and enterprise contracts.
Windows and Office
Windows and Office remain central to Microsoft's identity. Windows made the company a dominant force in desktop computing, while Office became a standard set of productivity tools for businesses, public bodies, schools and home users.
The Office brand has gradually moved into Microsoft 365, where Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook sit alongside cloud storage, collaboration, identity management and communication tools. This shift changed Microsoft from a company known mainly for software releases into one built heavily around continuing services.
Cloud and Artificial Intelligence
Azure is one of Microsoft's most important growth areas. It is used for virtual machines, databases, storage, content delivery, identity, analytics, container hosting and application platforms. Microsoft also sells artificial intelligence services through Azure and integrates similar features into Microsoft 365, GitHub and Windows.
This has made Microsoft a major part of the cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure market. It has also raised questions about data protection, competition, energy demand, software dependency and the concentration of digital infrastructure among a small number of large providers.
Criticism and Legal Issues
Microsoft has often been criticised for its market power. Historic competition cases focused on the way Windows was tied to other Microsoft products. More recent criticism has covered cloud contracts, software bundling, data collection, default settings, forced online accounts, Windows update behaviour and the difficulty of moving away from Microsoft services once a business is deeply tied into them.
The company has also been praised for improving developer relations, supporting open-source projects, investing in accessibility and making some products work across competing platforms. Microsoft's reputation is therefore mixed: it is both a core supplier of modern computing and a frequent target of concern about lock-in and market concentration.
See Also
References
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