Microsoft
Headquarters
Redmond, WAFounded
1975CEO / Founder
Satya NadellaEmployees
10000+Funding
PublicStock
MSFTProducts
9 products listedAvg. AI Score
7.8/10Website
www.microsoft.com/
Profile updated
About Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico, later relocating its headquarters to Redmond, Washington. The company began as a developer of programming languages and operating systems, releasing MS-DOS in 1981 and Windows in 1985, and has since grown into one of the largest technology companies in the world by revenue and market capitalization.
Microsoft's product portfolio spans operating systems (Windows), productivity software (Microsoft 365, including Word, Excel, and Teams), cloud computing (Azure), gaming (Xbox and Activision Blizzard, acquired in 2023), professional networking (LinkedIn, acquired in 2016), and developer tools (GitHub, acquired in 2018). The company has invested heavily in artificial intelligence, including a multibillion-dollar partnership with OpenAI and the integration of Copilot AI features across its product lines. Its customers span consumers, small businesses, and large enterprises across nearly every industry.
Microsoft has traded on the Nasdaq under the ticker MSFT since its 1986 initial public offering. The company employs more than 220,000 people globally and reported annual revenue exceeding $245 billion for fiscal year 2024. Satya Nadella has served as CEO since 2014, succeeding Steve Ballmer.
Specialties
Financials
Dated, source-cited figures. Estimates are marked.
Products by Microsoft
All products by Microsoft reviewed by our AI panel of experts.
Interactive data visualization and business intelligence for the Microsoft ecosystem
Microsoft's managed cloud service for OpenAI's GPT and AI models
Automate repetitive tasks and workflows across your apps
AI clinical assistant for ambient notes, dictation and task automation
No-code platform for building custom AI chatbots and conversational experiences
Graphic design and image editing powered by AI
Chat, meetings, calling, and file sharing integrated with Microsoft 365
Microsoft's AI assistant for everyday tasks and questions
Multi-agent framework for building LLM-powered collaborative AI workflows
How Our Review Panel Scores Microsoft
Six independent reviewer personalities assessed Microsoft's products on their own terms. They disagreed by 1.3 points — The Skeptic was the hardest to convince, The Domain Strategist the most positive.
Averaged across 9 reviewed products in our catalog. Scores are out of 10.
Competitive Landscape
Who Microsoft competes with, and how they differ.
Competes directly across Workspace vs Microsoft 365, Gemini vs Copilot, and Google Cloud vs Azure, with a more consumer/web-native product philosophy versus Microsoft's enterprise-IT-centric bundling.
6 products reviewed on TopReviewed
Primary rival to Azure in cloud infrastructure and to Azure OpenAI Service via Bedrock's multi-model hosting approach, with usage-based pricing and a broader third-party model marketplace rather than deep Office/productivity integration.
2 products reviewed on TopReviewed
Competes with Azure OpenAI Service and Copilot at the model/API layer; Anthropic sells direct API and Claude access rather than bundling AI into an enterprise productivity suite, targeting developers building on Claude specifically.
3 products reviewed on TopReviewed
Overlaps with Power Automate and Copilot Studio in enterprise workflow automation and AI agents, but is a standalone workflow/ITSM platform rather than tied to an OS or productivity suite ecosystem.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewed
Direct competitor to Microsoft Teams in video conferencing and workplace communication, sold as a focused communications product rather than part of a broader office suite.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewed
Competes with Microsoft Dragon Copilot in AI medical scribing, focusing narrowly on clinical documentation for health systems rather than Microsoft's broader healthcare cloud and productivity stack.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewedCompany Timeline
Key milestones in Microsoft's history, with sources.
- Partnership
OpenAI restructures; Microsoft holds 27 percent stake
OpenAI completed its restructuring into a public benefit corporation, with Microsoft holding a stake of about 27 percent valued at roughly $135 billion after more than $13 billion invested since 2019.
aljazeera.com - Acquisition
Completes $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard
Largest deal in Microsoft history, closed after clearance from the UK Competition and Markets Authority; brought Call of Duty, Diablo and Overwatch into Xbox.
cnbc.com - Launch
Unveils Microsoft 365 Copilot
AI assistant embedded across Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams; general availability for enterprises followed on November 1, 2023 at $30 per user per month.
pcguide.com - Partnership
Extends OpenAI partnership with multibillion-dollar investment
Third phase of the partnership, reported at around $10 billion, bringing total Microsoft commitments to roughly $13 billion since 2019.
techcrunch.com - Launch
GitHub Copilot becomes generally available
The Codex-powered AI pair programmer left technical preview at $10 per month, free for verified students and maintainers of popular open-source projects.
github.blog - Acquisition
Agrees to acquire Nuance for $19.7 billion
All-cash deal at $56 per share for the clinical voice and ambient AI provider behind DAX; the acquisition closed in March 2022 and anchored the healthcare AI push.
healthcaredive.com - Partnership
Invests $1 billion in OpenAI
Multiyear partnership making Azure the exclusive cloud provider for OpenAI, aimed at building AGI-scale supercomputing on Azure.
news.microsoft.com - Acquisition
Acquires GitHub for $7.5 billion
Stock deal for the development platform then used by 28 million developers; GitHub continued to operate independently under CEO Nat Friedman.
news.microsoft.com - Acquisition
Acquires LinkedIn for $26.2 billion
All-cash deal at $196 per share, the largest acquisition in company history at the time; LinkedIn kept its brand with CEO Jeff Weiner reporting to Satya Nadella.
news.microsoft.com - Milestone
Initial public offering at $21 per share
Shares priced at $21 closed the first day at $27.75, raising $61 million and valuing Microsoft at more than $500 million.
historylink.org - Founded
Microsoft founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen
Founded in Albuquerque, New Mexico, to write software for the Altair 8800; the company licensed MS-DOS to IBM in 1981 and later settled in Redmond, Washington.
thestreet.com
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