Microsoft Wikipedia

Childhood friends and sought to make a business using their skills in . In 1972, they founded , which sold a rudimentary computer to track and analyze automobile traffic data.

The January 1975 issue of featured 's (MITS) microcomputer, which inspired Allen to suggest that they could program a interpreter for the device. Gates called MITS and claimed that he had a working interpreter, and MITS requested a demonstration. Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter, and it worked flawlessly when they demonstrated it to MITS in March 1975 in . MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as .^{: 108, 112–114} Gates and Allen established Microsoft on April 4, 1975, with Gates as CEO, and Allen suggested the name "Micro-Soft", short for micro-computer software. In August 1977, the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office of . Microsoft moved its headquarters to , in January 1979.

Microsoft entered the (OS) business in 1980 with its own version of , licensed from a year before, called , but it was that solidified the company's dominance. awarded a contract to Microsoft in November 1980 to provide a version of the OS to be used in the (IBM PC). For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called from which it branded as MS-DOS, although IBM rebranded it to . Microsoft retained ownership of MS-DOS following the release of the IBM PC in August 1981. IBM had copyrighted the IBM PC , so other companies had to reverse engineer it for non-IBM hardware to run as , but no such restriction applied to the operating systems. The company expanded into new markets with the release of the in 1983, as well as with a publishing division named .^: 232
Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983 after developing .

Microsoft released on November 20, 1985, as a graphical extension for ,^{: 242–243, 246} despite having begun jointly developing with IBM that August. Microsoft moved its headquarters from Bellevue to , on February 26, 1986, and went public with an (IPO) at the NASDAQ exchange on March 13, with the resulting rise in stock making an estimated four billionaires and 12,000 millionaires from Microsoft employees. Microsoft released its version of OS/2 to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on April 2, 1987. In 1990, the Federal Trade Commission examined Microsoft for possible collusion due to the partnership with IBM, marking the beginning of more than a decade of legal clashes with the government. ^{: 243–244} Meanwhile, the company was at work on Microsoft , which was heavily based on its copy of the OS/2 code. It shipped on July 21, 1993, with a new modular and the (API), making it easier to port from (MS-DOS-based) Windows. Microsoft informed IBM of Windows NT, and the OS/2 partnership deteriorated.

In 1990, Microsoft introduced the suite which bundled separate applications such as and .^: 301 On May 22, Microsoft launched , featuring streamlined user interface graphics and improved protected mode capability for the processor, and both Office and Windows became dominant in their respective areas.

On July 27, 1994, the filed a competitive impact statement stating that since 1988, Microsoft had increasingly induced to pay royalties under a per-processor license for microprocessors in their computers regardless of whether a Microsoft product was used.

Following Bill Gates's internal "Internet Tidal Wave memo" on May 26, 1995, Microsoft began to redefine its offerings and expand its product line into and the . With a few exceptions of new companies, like , Microsoft was the only major and established company that acted fast enough to be a part of the World Wide Web practically from the start. Other companies like , , , and , being much slower to adapt to the new situation, would give Microsoft market dominance.

The company released on August 24, 1995, featuring , a completely new user interface with a novel , and 32-bit compatibility; similar to NT, it provided the Win32 API.^: 20 Windows 95 came bundled with the , which was intended to be a competitor to services such as and . The Internet Explorer was not bundled with the retail release of Windows 95, and was instead included in the later pack, as well as with OEM releases of Windows 95.

Backed by a high-profile marketing campaign and what called "the splashiest, most frenzied, most expensive introduction of a computer product in the industry's history," Windows 95 quickly became a success. Branching out into new markets in 1996, Microsoft and 's unit created a new cable news channel, . Microsoft created , a new OS designed for devices with low memory and other constraints, such as . In October 1997, the Justice Department filed a motion in the Federal , stating that Microsoft violated an agreement signed in 1994 and asked the court to stop the bundling of with Windows.^{: 323–324}

On January 13, 2000, Bill Gates handed over the CEO position to , an old college friend of Gates and employee of the company since 1980, while creating a new position for himself as Chief .^{: 111, 228} Under Ballmer's leadership, the company saw an increased focus on hardware products.

On October 25, 2001, Microsoft released , unifying the mainstream and NT lines of OS under the NT codebase. The company released the later that year, entering the market dominated by and . In March 2004 the brought , citing it abused its dominance with the Windows OS, resulting in a judgment of €497 million ($613 million) and requiring Microsoft to produce new versions of Windows XP without : Windows XP Home Edition N and Windows XP Professional N. In November 2005, the company's second and most successful video game console, the , was released.

Increasingly present in the hardware business following Xbox, Microsoft 2006 released the series of digital media players, a successor of its previous software platform .

Released in January 2007, the next version of Windows, , focused on features, security and a redesigned user interface dubbed . , released at the same time, featured a "" user interface which was a significant departure from its predecessors. Relatively strong sales of both products helped to produce a record profit in 2007. The European Union imposed another fine of €899 million ($1.4 billion) for Microsoft's lack of compliance with the March 2004 judgment on February 27, 2008, saying that the company charged rivals unreasonable prices for key information about its and servers. Microsoft stated that it was in compliance and that "these fines are about the past issues that have been resolved". Gates retired from his role as Chief Software Architect on June 27, 2008, a decision announced in June 2006, while retaining other positions related to the company in addition to being an advisor for the company on key projects. , the company's entry into the market for Windows, launched on October 27, 2008. On February 12, 2009, Microsoft announced its intent to open a chain of Microsoft-branded retail stores, and on October 22, 2009, the first retail opened in ; the same day was officially released to the public.

As the smartphone industry boomed in the late 2000s, Microsoft had struggled to keep up with its rivals in providing a modern smartphone operating system, falling behind and -sponsored in the United States. As a result, in 2010 Microsoft revamped its aging flagship mobile operating system, , replacing it with the new OS that was released in October that year. It used a new user interface design language, codenamed "Metro", which prominently used simple shapes, typography, and iconography, utilizing the concept of minimalism. Microsoft implemented a new strategy for the software industry, providing a consistent user experience across all smartphones using the Windows Phone OS. It launched an alliance with in 2011 and Microsoft worked closely with the company to co-develop Windows Phone, but remained partners with long-time Windows Mobile . Microsoft is a founding member of the started on March 23, 2011. This nonprofit organization is focused on providing support for a initiative called Software-Defined Networking. The initiative is meant to speed innovation through simple software changes in telecommunications networks, wireless networks, data centers, and other networking areas.

Following the release of , Microsoft undertook a gradual of its product range throughout 2011 and 2012, with the corporation's logos, products, services, and websites adopting the principles and concepts of the . Microsoft unveiled , an operating system designed to power both personal computers and , in Taipei in June 2011. Also in 2011, Microsoft saw its largest acquisition by taking over .

The was unveiled in June 2012, becoming the first computer in the company's history to have its hardware made by Microsoft. On June 25, Microsoft paid US$1.2 billion to buy the social network . On July 31, it launched the to compete with . On September 4, 2012, Microsoft released .

In July 2012, Microsoft sold its 50% stake in MSNBC, which it had run as a joint venture with NBC since 1996. In October 2012, Microsoft launched Windows 8, , and . To cope with the potential for an increase in demand for products and services, Microsoft opened a number of "holiday stores" across the U.S. to complement the increasing number of "bricks-and-mortar" Microsoft Stores that opened in 2012. On March 29, 2013, Microsoft launched a Patent Tracker.

In August 2012, the announced a partnership with Microsoft for the development of the which is used for .

The , a motion-sensing input device made by Microsoft and designed as a , first introduced in November 2010, was upgraded for the 2013 release of the video game console. On July 19, 2013, Microsoft stocks suffered its biggest one-day percentage sell-off since the year 2000, after its fourth-quarter report raised concerns among investors on the poor showings of both Windows 8 and the Surface tablet. Microsoft suffered a loss of more than US$32 billion.

In line with the maturing PC business, in July 2013, Microsoft announced that it would reorganize into four new business divisions: Operating Systems, Apps, Cloud, and Devices. All previous divisions were dissolved into new divisions without any workforce cuts. On September 3, 2013, Microsoft agreed to buy 's mobile unit for $7 billion, following taking the role of CFO.

On February 4, 2014, stepped down as of Microsoft and was succeeded by , who previously led Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise division. On the same day, took on the role of chairman, in place of Bill Gates, who continued to participate as a technology advisor. Thompson became the second chairman in Microsoft's history. On April 25, 2014, Microsoft acquired Nokia Devices and Services for $7.2 billion. This new subsidiary was renamed Microsoft Mobile Oy. On September 15, 2014, Microsoft acquired the video game development company , best known for , for $2.5 billion. Since Nadella became CEO, the company has changed focus towards cloud computing.

On January 21, 2015, Microsoft announced the release of its first , named . On July 29, 2015, was released, with its server sibling, , released in September 2016. Microsoft's share of the U.S. smartphone market in January 2016 was 2.7%. During the summer of 2015 the company lost $7.6 billion related to its mobile-phone business, firing 7,800 employees.

In 2015, the construction of a data center in , led to the destruction of a historic cemetery despite archeological recommendations for preservation.

On March 1, 2016, Microsoft announced the merger of its PC and Xbox divisions, with announcing that Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps would be the focus for Microsoft's gaming in the future. Microsoft also aqcuired in 2016. On January 24, 2017, Microsoft showcased Intune for Education at the 2017 education technology conference in . Intune for Education is a new cloud-based application and device management service for the education sector. In May 2016, the company announced it was laying off 1,850 workers, and taking an impairment and restructuring charge of $950 million.

In June 2016, Microsoft announced a project named Microsoft Azure Information Protection. It aims to help enterprises protect their data as it moves between servers and devices. In November 2016, Microsoft joined the as a Platinum member during Microsoft's Connect(); developer event in New York. The cost of each Platinum membership is US$500,000 per year. Some analysts had deemed this unthinkable ten years prior, however, as in 2001 then-CEO Steve Ballmer called Linux "cancer".

In January 2018, Microsoft patched to account for CPU problems related to . The patch led to issues with the virtual machines reliant on Intel's CPU architecture. On January 12, Microsoft released for the and operating systems. In February 2018, Microsoft ceased notification support for its devices which effectively ended firmware updates for the discontinued devices. In March 2018, Microsoft recalled to change it to a mode for the Windows operating system rather than a separate and unique operating system. In March the company also established guidelines that censor users of from using in private documents.

In April 2018, Microsoft released the source code for Windows under the to celebrate the program's 20th anniversary. In April the company further expressed willingness to embrace initiatives by announcing as its own derivative of the operating system. In May 2018, Microsoft partnered with 17 American intelligence agencies to develop products. The project is dubbed "Azure Government" and has ties to the (JEDI) surveillance program. On June 4, 2018, Microsoft officially announced the acquisition of for $7.5 billion, a deal that closed on October 26, 2018. On July 10, 2018, Microsoft revealed the platform to the public. A free version of Teams was released on July 12, 2018. In August 2018, Microsoft released two projects called Microsoft AccountGuard and Defending Democracy. It also unveiled compatibility for on the .

In August 2018, began a partnership with Microsoft to create tools using the Microsoft Azure application suite for (IoT) technologies related to water management. Developed in part by researchers from , the water pump mechanisms use to count the number of fish on a , analyze the number of fish, and deduce the effectiveness of water flow from the data the fish provide.

In September 2018, Microsoft discontinued . On October 10, 2018, Microsoft joined the community despite holding more than 60,000 patents. In November 2018, Microsoft agreed to supply 100,000 headsets to the in order to "increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy." In November 2018, Microsoft introduced Azure Multi-Factor Authentication for Microsoft Azure.

In December 2018, Microsoft announced , an open source release of the (UEFI) core used in and products. The project promotes the idea of . In the same month, Microsoft announced the open source implementation of and the (WPF) which will allow for further movement of the company toward the transparent release of key frameworks used in developing Windows desktop applications and software. December also saw the company discontinue the browser project in favor of the browser project, featuring a based backend.

In February 2019, hundreds of Microsoft employees protested the company's from a $480 million contract to develop for the .

On August 5, 2020, Microsoft stopped its game streaming test for devices. imposed a strict limit on "" which means applications are only allowed to connect to a user-owned host device or gaming console owned by the user. On September 21, 2020, Microsoft announced its intent to acquire video game company , the parent company of . On March 9, 2021, the acquisition was finalized at $8.1 billion and ZeniMax Media became part of Microsoft's Xbox Game Studios division.

On November 10, 2020, Microsoft released the video game consoles.

In February 2021, Microsoft released for public preview. The public cloud computing platform provides access to quantum software and quantum hardware including , , and  systems.

In April 2021, Microsoft announced it would buy for approximately $16 billion, completing the acquisition in March 2022. In 2021, in part due to the strong quarterly earnings spurred by the , Microsoft's valuation came to nearly $2 trillion. The increased necessity for and drove demand for and grew the company's gaming sales.

On June 24, 2021, Microsoft announced during a livestreamed event. The announcement came with confusion after Microsoft announced Windows 10 would be the last version of the operating system. It was released to the general public on October 5, 2021.

In September 2021, it was announced that the company had acquired , an online platform that connects students and tutors in numerous subjects. The acquisition positioned Microsoft to grow its presence in the market of providing online education to large numbers of people. In the same month, Microsoft acquired Australia-based video editing software company .

In October 2021, Microsoft announced that it began rolling out end-to-end encryption (E2EE) support for Microsoft Teams calls in order to secure business communication while using video conferencing software. On October 7, Microsoft acquired Ally.io, a software service that measures companies' progress against , planning to incorporate it into its Viva family of employee experience products.

On January 18, 2022, Microsoft announced the acquisition of American video game developer and in an all-cash deal worth $68.7 billion, which was completed in 2023. Microsoft also named , head of the Xbox brand since 2014, the inaugural CEO of the newly established division, which now houses the Xbox operations team and the three publishers in the company's portfolio (Xbox Game Studios, ZeniMax Media, Activision Blizzard). Microsoft had not released statements regarding Activision's recent legal controversies regarding employee abuse, but reports have alleged that Activision CEO , a major target of the controversy, would leave the company after the acquisition is finalized. The deal was closed on October 13, 2023.

In January 2023, CEO Satya Nadella announced Microsoft would lay off 10,000 employees. The announcement came a day after hosting a concert for 50 people, including Microsoft executives, in , Switzerland.

On January 23, 2023, Microsoft announced a new multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment deal with developer .

In June 2023, Microsoft released Azure Quantum Elements to run molecular simulations and calculations in and materials science using a combination of AI, high-performance computing and . The service includes , a GPT-4 based large language model tool to query and visualize data, write code, initiate simulations, and educate researchers.

At a November 2023 developer conference, Microsoft announced two new custom-designed computing chips: The Maia chip, designed to run large language models, and Cobalt CPU, designed to power general cloud services on Azure.

On November 20, 2023, Satya Nadella announced that , who had been just days earlier, and , who had resigned as president, would join Microsoft to lead a new advanced AI research team. However, the plan was short-lived, as Altman was subsequently reinstated as OpenAI's CEO and Brockman rejoined the company amid pressure from OpenAI's employees and investors on its board. In March 2024, 's cofounders and Karen Simonyan announced their departure from the company in order to start Microsoft AI, with Microsoft nearly the entirety of its 70-person workforce. As part of the deal, Microsoft paid Inflection $650 million to license its technology.

In January 2024, Microsoft became the most valued publicly traded company. Meanwhile, that month, the company announced a subscription offering of artificial intelligence for small businesses via Copilot Pro.

In June 2024, Microsoft announced it would be laying off 1,000 employees from the company's mixed reality and Azure cloud computing divisions. The same month, Microsoft announced that it was building a "hyperscale data centre" in South East Leeds.

In July 2024, it was reported that the company was laying off its (DEI) team. On July 19, a impacted Microsoft services, affecting businesses, airlines, and financial institutions worldwide. The outage was traced back to a flawed update of 's cybersecurity software, which resulted in Microsoft systems crashing and causing disruptions across various sectors. Despite CrowdStrike's CEO clarifying that the issue was not a cyberattack, the incident had widespread consequences, leading to delays in air travel, financial transactions, and medical services globally. Microsoft stated that the underlying cause had been fixed but acknowledged ongoing residual impacts on some apps and services.

In September 2024, and Microsoft announced a $30 billion fund, the Global AI Infrastructure Investment Partnership, to invest in AI infrastructure such as data centers and energy projects. Partners include -backed MGX and , which will provide AI expertise. Investments will primarily focus on the U.S., with some in partner countries. Microsoft also announced relaunch of its controversial tool, Recall, in November 2024 after addressing privacy concerns. Initially criticized for taking regular screenshots without user consent, Recall was changed to an opt-in feature instead of being default on. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office monitored the situation and noted the adjustments, which included enhanced security measures like encryption and biometric access. While experts regarded these changes as improvements, they advised caution, with some recommending further testing before users opted in.

On February 28, 2025, Microsoft announced that Skype would be shutting down on May 5, 2025, to streamline its focus on Microsoft Teams. The company stated there would be no job cuts due to the shutdown.

In mid-2025, Microsoft's Russian division, Microsoft Rus LLC, filed for bankruptcy after President stated that foreign services providers should be throttled in Russia to make way for domestic software. The company had restructured operations in Russia after the , but those restructuring efforts had failed.

On May 23, 2025, it was reported that Europol's European Cybercrime Centre worked with Microsoft to disrupt Lumma Stealer, a significant infostealer threat. The joint operation targeted a sophisticated ecosystem that allowed criminals to exploit stolen information on a massive scale.

On July 2, 2025, Microsoft announced it would cut nearly 4% of its workforce, around 9,000 jobs, to control costs amid heavy AI infrastructure spending, while also restructuring management and streamlining operations.

According to an analysis by , Microsoft—along with , and —is expected to collectively invest about $650 billion to scale up AI-related infrastructure in 2026.

In March 2026, Microsoft-controlled discussion forums banned the nickname Microslop, used to express pushback against Microsoft's Copilot-based and efforts.

In March 2026, Microsoft signed an energy pledge at the White House which required it to bear the cost of new electricity generation to power its data centers.

On 9 March 2026, Microsoft unveiled the Copilot Cowork tool, which is based on Cowork, tapping into the growing demand for .