Microsoft Corporation is a major American technology company whose work spans personal computing, operating systems, productivity software, cloud computing, developer tools, gaming, enterprise services, and artificial intelligence. This document records Microsoft's historical and corporate context for the project.
Project note: This document recognizes Microsoft's technical and historical significance. It does not imply that the project is a Microsoft product or that Microsoft endorses it.
Microsoft has made a substantial and lasting contribution to computing. Windows and Microsoft Office helped define personal and business computing, while Azure, .NET, GitHub, Visual Studio, Xbox, and other platforms expanded Microsoft's role across modern software and cloud infrastructure.
The spirit here is the same as the other family documents: recognize useful work, preserve interoperability where practical, learn from established engineering practices, and give credit to the people and institutions that helped build the computing ecosystem.
Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft in 1975. Their early work around software for microcomputers helped establish Microsoft as a major software company.
Gates later served as Microsoft's chief executive and chairman. Allen remained an important early technical and corporate figure before leaving day-to-day Microsoft work in the 1980s.
Microsoft's later history includes Windows, Office, Windows Server, SQL Server, .NET, Xbox, Azure, Microsoft 365, GitHub, LinkedIn, and a large enterprise and developer ecosystem.
Satya Nadella became Microsoft CEO in 2014 and is now Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.
Microsoft reported approximately 228,000 full-time employees as of June 30, 2025, including 125,000 in the United States and 103,000 internationally. Its FY2026 results are the latest completed fiscal-year financial results as of this document's preparation.
| Area | Employees |
|---|---|
| Operations | 89,000 |
| Product research and development | 80,000 |
| Sales and marketing | 44,000 |
| General and administration | 15,000 |
| Total | 228,000 |
Microsoft operates a worldwide property and infrastructure footprint rather than a single easily stated building count. Its facilities include offices, research sites, operations centers, manufacturing/distribution facilities, and a large global data-center network supporting Azure and other cloud services.
Microsoft's annual reporting describes continued investment in data-center locations, permitted and buildable land, energy, networking, servers, and AI infrastructure.
For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026, Microsoft reported:
| Measure | FY2026 |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $331.839 billion |
| Operating income | $155.237 billion |
| Net income | $133.749 billion |
| Diluted EPS | $17.95 |
Microsoft also reported FY2026 Microsoft Cloud revenue of $59.3 billion for the fourth quarter and Azure and other cloud-services revenue growth of 43% in that quarter.
Microsoft common stock trades on The Nasdaq Stock Market under:
MSFT
Microsoft's IPO took place on March 13, 1986, at an offering price of $21.00 per share.
Microsoft has documented nine common-stock splits since its IPO:
| Effective date | Split |
|---|---|
| September 18, 1987 | 2-for-1 |
| April 12, 1990 | 2-for-1 |
| June 26, 1991 | 3-for-2 |
| June 12, 1992 | 3-for-2 |
| May 20, 1994 | 2-for-1 |
| December 6, 1996 | 2-for-1 |
| February 20, 1998 | 2-for-1 |
| March 26, 1999 | 2-for-1 |
| February 14, 2003 | 2-for-1 |
Microsoft states that after the 2003 split, one original IPO share represented 288 shares.
A responsible corporate history records documented legal and regulatory matters without exaggeration.
Microsoft's history includes major antitrust proceedings and settlements, including the U.S. federal antitrust case that resulted in a 2001 settlement and subsequent court oversight. Microsoft also publishes extensive current risk and litigation disclosures in its SEC filings.
These matters should be described according to their documented legal status rather than by using broad labels about people or organizations.
Microsoft's history provides useful context for operating systems, developer tooling, enterprise software, cloud services, networking, programming languages, and cross-platform engineering.
This project remains independent. It may learn from Microsoft's documented engineering and interoperability work while maintaining its own implementation, documentation, testing, and development practices.
Microsoft's history represents decades of work in software, personal computing, enterprise technology, cloud infrastructure, developer tools, and digital services. Its role in the development of modern computing makes it a useful part of this family of corporate technology reference documents.
- Microsoft — FY2026 Q4 Earnings Release
- Microsoft — Investor Relations / FY2026 filings
- Microsoft — Investor FAQ and stock-split history
- Microsoft — 2025 Annual Report
Prepared for this project, September 2026.