Microsoft

A U.S. multinational technology company founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, it is one of the world's largest companies, leading the software, cloud, and AI industries around Windows, Office,

Microsoft

Overview

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational technology company founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. With operating systems (Windows), productivity software (Office), cloud platform (Azure), and artificial intelligence (Copilot) as its core pillars, it has shaped global standards for personal computing and enterprise IT infrastructure. Its headquarters are in Redmond, Washington, and as of 2024-2025 it is among the world's most valuable companies by market capitalization, establishing itself as a key player in the generative AI era.

Main Content

Founding and Early Growth

Starting in 1975 with the development of a BASIC interpreter for the MITS Altair, Microsoft grew rapidly by supplying MS-DOS for the IBM PC in 1981. It introduced its first Windows in 1985 and led the popularization of the GUI through Windows 3.0 in 1990 and Windows 95 in 1995. After its 1986 Nasdaq listing, Bill Gates held the position of the world's richest person for a long time.

Core Product Lines

  • Windows: The flagship product that has effectively monopolized the global PC operating system market since the 1990s. Windows 10 and Windows 11 correspond to the current generation.
  • Microsoft Office / Microsoft 365: A productivity suite represented by Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook; it has now shifted to a subscription-based cloud service.
  • Azure: A cloud computing platform launched in 2010; along with AWS, it is one of the world's two largest cloud service providers.
  • Xbox: A game console brand launched in 2001; through the 2022 acquisition of Activision Blizzard (approximately $69 billion), it joined the ranks of the world's top three game companies.
  • LinkedIn, GitHub, Surface: Services acquired in 2016 and 2018, respectively, and its own hardware lineup.

Organization and Management

Steve Ballmer became CEO in 2000, and Satya Nadella became CEO in 2014. Nadella promoted a 'mobile-first, cloud-first' strategy, reorganized the business structure around cloud and subscription models, and shifted to open-source-friendly policies. In 2023, it made a large-scale investment in OpenAI, placing itself at the center of the generative AI competition.

Latest Trends

In 2024-2025, Microsoft's key topic is undoubtedly generative AI. By integrating Copilot, announced in March 2023, into all products including Windows, Microsoft 365, GitHub, and Bing, it is making 'AI assistants' commonplace. Azure OpenAI Service has grown rapidly as a gateway for enterprise customers to adopt LLMs, and it significantly expanded investment in its own AI chips (Maia) and cloud infrastructure. In 2024, it completed the approximately $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard, strengthening its gaming and content capabilities, and in 2025 it is putting its AI agent strategy (Copilot Studio, Agent) at the forefront, targeting the autonomous work automation market. Meanwhile, antitrust and AI regulation discussions by EU and U.S. regulators, environmental issues from large-scale data center power consumption, and demands to verify profitability relative to AI investment have emerged as major challenges.

Related Topics

  • [[Bill Gates]]
  • [[Satya Nadella]]
  • [[Windows]]
  • [[Azure]]
  • [[OpenAI]]
  • [[Copilot]]
  • [[Cloud computing]]
  • [[Activision Blizzard]]