The nuclear explosion that changed the course of history
Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Bill Gates demonstrated a passion for computers at an early age.
MITS hired Gates and Allen. Both, however, were keen to start their own company. On April 4, 1975, Bill Gates and Paul Allen founded Microsoft. Allen came up with the original name of Micro-Soft, a blend of microcomputer and software. The company was registered under that name in New Mexico in 1976 (the term "Microsoft" was first used by Bill Gates in 1979).
At age 17, Gates formed a venture with Allen called Traf-O-Data to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. The company achieved only modest success, but the experience was instrumental in the creation of Microsoft Corporation a few years later.
Microsoft celebrated its 10th anniversary in 1985 with sales figures for the fiscal year of US$140 million, a figure worth $413 million in 2025.
Gates was arrested for a traffic violation in December 1977, the year he would have graduated from Harvard had he not dropped out. His police mugshot resurfaced in 1998 on the cover of the September issue of Brill's Content magazine. The photo was described as showing "a nerdy-looking Gates with his boyish smile, tinted glasses and shaggy hair nearly covering his ears."
As DOS was the only operating system available on the PC when it was introduced, its use paved the way to the future domination by the MS-DOS operating system.
The following year, the company restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington. Renamed Microsoft Corporation, Gates became president of the company and chairman of the board, and Paul Allen became executive vice president and vice chairman.
In 1983, in collaboration with numerous companies, Microsoft created a home computer system, MSX, which contained its own version of the DOS operating system, called MSX-DOS.
The original Microsoft team in Albuquerque consisted of just 13 employees (11 of whom are pictured).
In February 1986, Microsoft moved to its corporate campus in Redmond, Washington, its home ever since.
In January 1975, Paul Allen saw an advertisement for the Altair 8800 Computer in Popular Electronics. He bought a copy of the magazine and showed it to Gates, who was studying at Harvard.
The Altair 8800 was the first microcomputer. Gates and Allen both recognized potential to develop an implementation of BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) for the system.
Allen's demonstration was a success. The interpreter worked, and MITS agreed to distribute Altair BASIC. Allen then relocated to Albuquerque and was later joined by Gates, who'd taken a leave of absence from Harvard.
Windows 1.0 represented the first of a family of graphical operating systems for personal computers developed by Microsoft.
Gates wrote his first computer program—a game of tic-tac-toe—at the age of 13 while attending Lakeside School. Lakeside is where he met fellow computer enthusiast Paul Allen. Both are pictured seated at the school's Teletype Model 33 ASR terminals.
Allen contacted Altair manufacturer Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), offering to demonstrate their implementation. Intrigued, MITS president Ed Roberts invited Allen to the company's offices in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Recruiting top-level computer programmers to Albuquerque proved a challenge, so on January 1, 1979, Microsoft relocated to Bellevue in Washington state.
In mid-1980, Steve Ballmer joined Microsoft. Ballmer would later succeed Bill Gates as CEO from January 2000 until February 2014.
Paul Allen was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in 1983. An uncommon cancer that develops in the lymphatic system, the illness forced Allen to leave the company, though he remained on as vice chairman.
Microsoft's co-founder remained active in business throughout his battles with the disease, keeping busy in finance and tech, aerospace, real estate, and sport. As owner of the Seattle Seahawks, he lifted the Lombardi trophy after the team beat the Denver Broncos to win Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014.
Allen's cancer was successfully treated by several months of radiation therapy, but in 2009 he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Likewise, the cancer was successfully treated until it returned in 2018.
Paul Allen died on October 15, 2018, aged 65. Several Seattle-area landmarks, including the Space Needle, Columbia Center, and Lumen Field, as well as various Microsoft offices throughout the United States, were illuminated in blue on November 3 as a tribute to him.
In August 1981, IBM announced the release of its personal computer with Microsoft's 16-bit operating system, the MS-DOS 1.0.
The eagerly anticipated first retail version of Microsoft Windows (Windows 1.0) was introduced on November 20, 1985.
Microsoft went public in 1986 with an IPO, raising US$61 million ($176 million in 2025) at $21 a share. By the following year, it was the world's largest producer of software for personal computers.
The release in 1990 of Microsoft Office introduced the company's most successful product. The suite contained Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint—all three of which remain core products in Office.
In the tech bubble of the '90s, Microsoft thrived, rivaled only by Intel, Cisco, and Dell. The decade saw the release of Windows 3.0, Windows 95, and Windows 98.
One of the key products of the 2000s was Windows XP. On its release, the operating system received critical acclaim and remains synonymous with stability and innovation.
In 2008, Bill Gates transitioned from his day-to-day role at Microsoft to spend more time on his work at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Established in 2000, it's today known simply as the Gates Foundation (following the divorce of Bill and Melinda Gates) and is one of the largest charitable foundations in the world.
Bill Gates stepped down as Microsoft board chair in March 2020. According to Forbes, as of 2025, his net worth is US$107.8 billion.
Microsoft's current chair and CEO is Indian-born American Satya Nadella. He succeeded Steve Ballmer in 2014 as CEO and John W. Thompson in 2021 as chairman.
Microsoft's latest operating system in Windows 11, released in October 2021. A server version, Windows Server 2025, was released in 2024.
As of early April 2025, Microsoft has a market cap of US$2.840 trillion, which makes it one of the most valuable companies in the world.
Sources: (Microsoft) (Biography) (Companies Market Cap) (Forbes) (Statista)
See also: How supercomputers paved the way for laptops and chatbots
Fifty years ago on April 4, 1975, two young computer enthusiasts launched a company called Microsoft. Bill Gates and Paul Allen had the vision of putting a computer on every desk and in every home by creating a program that could power, support, and manage everything that went on inside a computer. Today, Microsoft's Windows is the dominant operating system worldwide, with a market share of 72%. So, how did two men with a passion for tech create the computer innovations that would define the 21st century?
Click through and browse this brief history of Microsoft.
Fifty years of Microsoft
Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and the PC revolution
messages.DAILYMOMENT Technology
Fifty years ago on April 4, 1975, two young computer enthusiasts launched a company called Microsoft. Bill Gates and Paul Allen had the vision of putting a computer on every desk and in every home by creating a program that could power, support, and manage everything that went on inside a computer. Today, Microsoft's Windows is the dominant operating system worldwide, with a market share of 72%. So, how did two men with a passion for tech create the computer innovations that would define the 21st century?
Click through and browse this brief history of Microsoft.