Microsoft is a software and cloud technology company founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. It serves businesses, public institutions, developers and consumers.
Its business spans productivity software, enterprise applications, cloud infrastructure, developer tools, security and personal computing. Azure, Microsoft 365, Windows, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform address different workloads; their licensing, deployment choices and support periods should be checked separately.
The financial figures below are dated, reported GAAP results rather than estimates. The employee figure is a historical snapshot from the 2025 annual report. Customer cases describe individual deployments and should not be treated as guarantees of universal outcomes.