What is Microsoft?
The cloud, productivity, and AI platform giant behind Azure, Windows, Microsoft 365, and Copilot.
- Category
- Cloud, Productivity & AI Platforms
- Headquarters
- Redmond, Washington, USA
- Founded
- April 4, 1975
- Employees
- ~228,000
- Total funding
- Bootstrapped (IPO 1986)
- Valuation
- ~$2.8T market cap (NASDAQ: MSFT)
What is Microsoft?
Microsoft is one of the world's largest technology companies, building cloud infrastructure (Azure), productivity software (Microsoft 365), the Windows operating system, AI assistants (Copilot), gaming (Xbox), and professional networking (LinkedIn). In its fiscal year ended June 30, 2025, it generated $281.7 billion in revenue and $101.8 billion in net income — the first time a pure software-and-cloud business cleared $100 billion in annual profit.
Microsoft sells across three reporting segments. Intelligent Cloud, which includes Azure and server products, was its largest at $105.4 billion in FY2025, with Azure alone crossing $75 billion in annual revenue and growing 34%. Productivity and Business Processes — home to Microsoft 365, Dynamics, and LinkedIn — and More Personal Computing (Windows, Xbox, Surface, search) made up the rest, while operating income reached $128.5 billion on the back of high-margin cloud and software.
The scale of its install base is enormous: more than 450 million paid Microsoft 365 commercial seats, well over a billion Windows devices, and a fast-growing Copilot AI family. Microsoft 365 Copilot, its paid enterprise AI add-on, reached about 15 million paid seats by February 2026 (up roughly 160% year over year), while the free Copilot Chat tier counted around 33 million active users — early but real traction on the company's biggest AI bet.
As a public company on NASDAQ (ticker MSFT), Microsoft carried a market capitalization around $2.8 trillion as of June 2026, after its shares hit an all-time-high close near $539 in October 2025 and then pulled back roughly 18% to about $382 amid concern over the scale of AI capital spending. It sits alongside Apple, Nvidia, Alphabet, and Amazon as one of the handful of companies that have flirted with or exceeded the $3-4 trillion mark.
What does Microsoft offer?
Microsoft spans cloud infrastructure, productivity, operating systems, AI, gaming, security, and developer tools.
- Azure (cloud platform)· Cloud
- Microsoft 365 / Office· Productivity
- Windows OS· Operating systems
- Copilot (AI assistant)· AI
- Dynamics 365 (ERP/CRM)· Business apps
- Teams· Collaboration
- LinkedIn· Professional network
- GitHub· Developer tools
- Xbox & Game Pass· Gaming
- Surface devices· Hardware
- Microsoft Security (Defender, Entra, Sentinel)· Security
- Bing & Microsoft Advertising· Search & ads
- Power Platform· Low-code
- Visual Studio / VS Code· Developer tools
How does Microsoft make money?
Microsoft makes money primarily through recurring subscriptions and cloud consumption: per-seat Microsoft 365 licenses, usage-based Azure cloud spend, AI add-ons like Copilot, plus enterprise agreements, gaming, advertising, and devices.
Productivity revenue is mostly per-user-per-month subscriptions. After the July 1, 2026 commercial price changes, Microsoft 365 Business Basic runs about $7/user/month, Business Standard $14, and Business Premium $22; enterprise tiers Microsoft 365 E3 and E5 list at roughly $39 and $60/user/month. The Microsoft 365 Copilot AI add-on is $30/user/month (annual commitment), a high-margin upsell layered on top of the more than 450 million existing commercial seats.
Azure is consumption-based: customers pay for compute, storage, networking, databases, and AI/GPU capacity as they use it, typically under multi-year enterprise commitments. This is the growth engine — Azure grew 34% in FY2025 and the Intelligent Cloud segment carries a rich operating margin — and it is increasingly underwritten by AI demand, including OpenAI's commitment to purchase $250 billion of Azure services as part of the two companies' restructured 2025 partnership.
The rest is a diversified mix: Windows OEM and commercial licensing, Xbox hardware plus Game Pass subscriptions and content (boosted by the Activision Blizzard acquisition), LinkedIn subscriptions and ads, Dynamics 365 business apps, GitHub developer subscriptions, Surface devices, and Bing/Microsoft Advertising. AI infrastructure is now the dominant driver of both growth and capital spending — Microsoft spent about $64.6 billion in capex in FY2025 to build out datacenters and GPUs.
Who leads Microsoft?
Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 and is led today by Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, with a slimmed-down senior team spanning finance, AI, commercial, people, and legal/policy.
- Satya NadellaChairman & Chief Executive OfficerCEO since 2014, Chairman since 2021Joined Microsoft in 1992; ran Server & Tools and the cloud business before becoming CEO; drove the Azure and AI/Copilot transformation. In 2025 he retired the long-standing Senior Leadership Team in favor of a smaller corporate group and a ~35-person engineering leadership cohort.
- Amy HoodExecutive Vice President & Chief Financial OfficerCFO since 2013Longtime finance chief overseeing Microsoft's shift to cloud and AI capital investment; joined Microsoft in 2002.
- Brad SmithVice Chair & PresidentPresident since 2015, Vice Chair since 2021Leads legal, corporate affairs, and global policy; joined Microsoft in 1993.
- Mustafa SuleymanExecutive Vice President & CEO, Microsoft AIIn role since March 2024DeepMind and Inflection AI co-founder; runs Microsoft AI, the consumer-facing Copilot, and Bing organization.
- Kevin ScottChief Technology Officer & EVP, AICTO since 2017Architect of Microsoft's platform AI strategy and the OpenAI partnership; previously an engineering leader at LinkedIn and Google.
- Judson AlthoffCEO, Commercial BusinessIn role since 2024 (joined Microsoft 2013)Runs Microsoft's worldwide commercial sales and go-to-market organization.
- Amy ColemanExecutive Vice President & Chief People OfficerCPO since 202525-year Microsoft veteran; succeeded Kathleen Hogan leading HR for ~228,000 employees, reporting to Nadella.
How do you contact Microsoft's leadership?
Microsoft email addresses follow internal alias and firstname.lastname patterns at microsoft.com. CEO Satya Nadella's address has been published as satyan@microsoft.com; other executive addresses below follow Microsoft's known formats but are not individually published, so treat them as best-pattern, not confirmed. For press, Microsoft routes through its Media Relations / Rapid Response Team (run by WE Communications) rather than executive inboxes.
alias@microsoft.com (e.g. satyan@microsoft.com) or firstname.lastname@microsoft.com- Microsoft Media Relations (Rapid Response Team)Press / media inquiriesrapidresponse@wecommunications.com
How much funding has Microsoft raised?
Microsoft was essentially bootstrapped. It took a single venture round of about $1 million from Technology Venture Investors (TVI) in 1981, then went public in March 1986. As a public company it now carries a market capitalization around $2.8 trillion (NASDAQ: MSFT).
Unlike modern venture-scaled startups, Microsoft grew on its own cash flow from licensing MS-DOS and other software through the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its only notable private financing was a roughly $1 million minority investment by Technology Venture Investors (TVI) — the firm's sole outside venture backer — led by David Marquardt in 1981; Marquardt subsequently served on Microsoft's board from 1981 until 2014.
Microsoft's defining capital event was its IPO on March 13, 1986, pricing at $21 per share on the NASDAQ (the first trade printed at $25.50 on heavy demand) and raising on the order of $61 million. The offering instantly created a wave of "Microsoft millionaires" and established the company as a public-market bellwether.
Since then, Microsoft has not relied on dilutive equity raises; instead it funds growth from operations and uses debt opportunistically — for example, large bond issuances to help finance the $26.2B LinkedIn (2016) and ~$69B Activision Blizzard (closed October 2023) acquisitions. Its "valuation" today is simply its public market cap, which briefly pushed toward $4 trillion in 2025 before settling around $2.8 trillion in mid-2026.
How did Microsoft get here?
From a 1975 BASIC-interpreter startup to a ~$2.8T cloud-and-AI giant.
- April 4, 1975Founded in AlbuquerqueBill Gates and Paul Allen found Microsoft to sell a BASIC interpreter for the Altair 8800.
- 1980-1981MS-DOS and the IBM PC dealMicrosoft licenses MS-DOS to IBM; TVI makes a ~$1M venture investment in 1981.
- March 13, 1986IPO on NASDAQGoes public at $21/share, raising ~$61M and minting Microsoft millionaires.
- November 1995Windows 95 launchBlockbuster OS release cements Microsoft's dominance of the PC era.
- February 2014Satya Nadella becomes CEOPivots Microsoft to a cloud-first, mobile-first, then AI-first strategy centered on Azure.
- 2016 & 2023LinkedIn and Activision Blizzard acquisitionsBuys LinkedIn for $26.2B (2016) and closes the ~$69B Activision Blizzard deal (October 2023).
- October 2025OpenAI partnership restructuredMicrosoft's stake converts to ~27% of a restructured OpenAI (~$135B); IP rights extended to 2032 and OpenAI commits to $250B of Azure.
- FY2025 (ended June 2025)$281.7B revenue, $100B+ profitAzure passes $75B; net income tops $100B for the first time amid the Copilot/AI buildout.
Who are Microsoft's competitors?
Microsoft competes across cloud, productivity, AI, and enterprise software against the other tech giants and category specialists.
- Amazon (AWS)Cloud-infrastructure leader; AWS is the #1 IaaS/PaaS provider that Azure chases on market share.
- Google / AlphabetCompetes via Google Cloud and Google Workspace (vs. Azure and Microsoft 365) and in consumer AI/search.
- SalesforceCRM and enterprise-app leader competing with Dynamics 365 and Microsoft's business-applications stack.
- OracleRivals Microsoft in databases (vs. SQL Server), enterprise apps, and fast-growing OCI cloud.
- AppleCompetes in devices, consumer OS/ecosystem, and productivity (iWork) against Windows, Surface, and Office.
- ServiceNowEnterprise workflow/AI-agent platform competing for the same IT and business-process budgets.
Microsoft — frequently asked questions
