Wondering about the net worth of Microsoft? Well, check out this article to find out about Microsoft’s net worth, growth milestones etc. here.
Microsoft is a globally renowned name in the IT sector. It is impossible to discount its name from the world of personal computing. The chief offerings of Microsoft range through computer software, personal computers and consumer electronics.
The most used software products of Microsoft are Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, Microsoft Office Suite and Internet Explorer. Microsoft also has a line of hardware offerings like Xbox consoles for video games and Microsoft touch screen personal computers.
Microsoft was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Initially, it ventured into developing BASIC interpreters for Altair 8800. However, products like MS Windows and MS-DOS helped the firm gain prominence in the personal computing industry domain during the 1980s.
How much Is the net worth of Microsoft?
Microsoft is an IT company with a net worth of $2 trillion in November 2021. It’s CEO is Bill Gates.
When Microsoft announced its IPO in 1986, its share prices rose sharply instantly creating three billionaires and over 12,000 millionaires from its employees.
In terms of total revenue, Microsoft ranks in the 21st place among the largest Fortune 500 corporations of the US.
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In 2016, the firm was the largest software maker in the world. Microsoft is counted among the top five $ trillion IT companies along with Amazon, Facebook (Meta), Google (Alphabet), and Apple. Microsoft net worth and its way to win a place among the trillion dollar firms is an interesting topic to discuss.
Microsoft Net Worth: Quick Summary
Company Name | Microsoft |
Company Type | Public |
Year of IPO | 1986 |
Trade Name | MSFT (Nasdaq) |
Headquarters | One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington, US. |
Founders | Bill Gates & Paul Allen |
CEOs | Bill Gates (1975–2000)Steve Ballmer (2000–2014)Satya Nadella (2014–continuing) |
Principal offerings | Software development, internet, computer hardware, consumer electronics, cloud computing, venture capital for corporate, video games, social networking service, |
Microsoft brands | Windows, Office, Skype, Servers, Dynamics, Visual Studio, Mobile, Xbox, Surface |
Net worth in 2021 | $ 1 trillion |
Operating income in 2021 | US$ 70 billion |
Net income in 2021 | US$ 60.6 billion |
No. of employees | 182,268 |
Major acquisitions | Skype Technologies (May 2011 for $8.5 billion)LinkedIn (Dec 2016 for $26.2 billion |
Net Worth of Microsoft
Microsoft’s net worth in 2021 is $2 trillion. Microsoft crossed a momentous milestone in its history when it reached the $1 trillion watermark on April 25, 2019. On October 4, 2019, its value touched $1.042 trillion before reaching $2 trillion due to a phenomenal rise in its market cap. As per the stats on October 28, Microsoft has a market cap of $2.435 trillion.

Microsoft is a huge company. For the convenience of its administration, the firm has segmented its operating revenue into three divisions namely Productivity and Business Processes, Intelligent Cloud and More Personal Computing.
In segment one called Productivity and Business Processes, the top revenue generators are Microsoft Office and LinkedIn. The Intelligent Cloud segment comprises server products, cloud services, Azure, and Enterprise Services. The More Personal Computing division is made of Microsoft Surface, the Xbox and the different Windows operating systems.
For the quarter ending on June 30, 2021, Microsoft has reported an income of $14.7 billion in the Productivity and Business Processes sector, $17.4 billion earnings in the Intelligent Cloud segment and a revenue of $14.1 billion in The More Personal Computing domain.
While these values mark an increase of 25%, 30% and 9% respectively, Microsoft’s cumulative annual revenue shows a $168.1 billion increase over the previous year’s (2020) earnings.
Important Growth Milestones of Microsoft
Bill Gates and Paul Allen together founded Traf-O-Data in 1972 and they manufactured a rudimentary kind of computer meant to track and analyze the data pertaining to automobiles.
Inspired by the success of the Altair BASIC, an interpreter they developed for Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS), they founded Microsoft in 1975 and Gates became its CEO.
In the 1980s, Microsoft debuted into creating operating systems by first developing Microsoft’s version of Unix known as Xenix. Nevertheless, the product that consolidated the position of Microsoft in the IT industry segment was MS-DOS, which IBM renamed as IBM PC DOS.
When IBM PC was released in 1981, Microsoft regained the ownership over MS-DOS. Eventually, Microsoft became the leader of PC operating systems.
Microsoft released its mouse in 1983 which made way for the company to experiment with new markets. It also created a publishing division known as Microsoft Press. Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1983.
In 1985, Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, deemed as the graphical extension for MS-DOS. On March 13, 1986, Microsoft went public and the move created three billionaires and over 12,000 millionaires from the Microsoft stakeholders.
In 1990, Microsoft released the Microsoft Office suite that offered a bundle of applications like MS Word and MS Excel. Windows 3.0 released in the same year offered an improved user experience in terms of advanced graphics and enhanced protection mode ably addressing the needs of Intel 386 processor. Microsoft Windows and Office dominated their own respective domains.
In 1995, Microsoft expanded into computer networking and the World Wide Web. Right from the start, Microsoft was the first player to strive to capture and retain its position in the World Wide Web. In the same year it released Windows 95 known for its multitasking capabilities.
This was a revolutionary interface featuring a novel start button and compatibility with 32-bit. Later Windows 95 plus introduced Internet Explorer for the first time and The New York Times described this as “the splashiest, most frenzied, most expensive introduction of a computer product in the industry’s history.”
On January 13, 2000, Bill Gates passed on the CEO position to Steve Ballmer, one of his old college friends and was with Microsoft since the 1980s. Upon this transfer, Bill Gates assumed the responsibility as ‘Chief Software Architect’. In 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP and Xbox later in the same year thereby entering the market of video game consoles.
The other notable releases during this period were digital media players known as Zune series (2006) and state of the art computer hardware including wired keyboard, mouse and webcam for desktops in the US.

Microsoft Windows Vista was released in 2007 that had more security features and a redesigned user interface. The same time saw the release of Microsoft Office 2007. Both these products reported record sales accounting for a sharp rise in the firm’s revenues. 2009 saw the firm opening a chain of branded retail outlets and the release of Windows 7.
The proliferation of smartphones saw Microsoft falling behind Apple and Android during the 2000s. To catch up with the demands, Microsoft released Windows Mobile and Windows phone based on the concept of minimalism.
Notable developments under Steve Ballmer were release of Windows 8 and Outlook.com webmail service, Microsoft Surface and Windows Phone 8 (2012), Xbox One video game console, reorganization of its business under four segments, and acquisition of Nokia mobile unit in a deal worth $7 billion.
Satya Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer as the CEO of Microsoft in 2014 while on the same day, John W Thompson became the chairman replacing Bill Gates. In 2015, Windows 10 was released and Microsoft became the third largest maker of mobile phones capturing 7.2% of the market by selling 33 million units.
In 2019, Microsoft cyber security service AccountGuard will protect the customers from hacking. In 2020, Microsoft released video game consoles Xbox Series C and X box Series S.
Microsoft Vs Apple
On October 29, 2021, Microsoft overtook Apple in terms of its market cap and became the world’s largest valued public firm. This development followed when Apple’s revenue reported for the quarter fell short of the expectations. The values recorded on the day read as $2.49 trillion market cap for Microsoft and $2.46 trillion market cap for Apple.
In a statement released following the reports, Apple said during the fourth fiscal quarter in 2021, the company missed the Wall Street Expectations due to constraints in the supply cycle. The shortfall was reportedly $6 billion, but the company anticipated a worsening of the issues in the supply chain in December.
Showing a remarkable increase in revenue valued at 22% over the last year’s figures, Microsoft landed on the fastest growth since 2018.
Notably, Apple was the first company to reach the market cap of $1 trillion and later $2 trillion. When Apple’s market cap surpassed that of Saudi Aramco, the oil giant during last year, Microsoft became the world’s largest public company.
Microsoft released the first major update to Windows in the last five years and its market cap crossed over $2 trillion in June.
On October 29, 2021, Microsoft’s stocks showed 48% increase over that of last year and Apple’s stocks grew only by 13%.
What Has Changed In Microsoft Under The New Ceo
Like many other huge corporations, Microsoft also had a challenging journey amidst a troubled past. The competition Microsoft had to face was not an easy one to tackle despite the most wonderful products to its portfolio.

In fact, since the dawn of computers, no other company has made a bigger contribution to personal computing than Microsoft. While other players have started doing very well like them, here is what is happening at Microsoft under the new CEO.
Microsoft stock prices had always been fluctuating over the years. Satya Nadella took over Microsoft as its CEO in 2014 and since then, Microsoft has been able to turn its prospects in a positive direction. The company administration has been able to figure out what works well for them and what does not.
Under the new CEO, Microsoft has decided to move away from smartphones and shift its focus on providing technological supplies to customers, which had always been the core of their business.
Microsoft has now embraced the concept of cloud computing and has also succeeded in offering one of the best places to work in terms of its commendable work culture.
While the stiff competition between Apple and Microsoft is a popular topic in the media and among analysts, in 2021, Microsoft’s market cap overtook that of Apple disproving the latter’s dream of staying ahead of Microsoft for a long time.
The entire scenario in and around Microsoft is highly conducive to assure a phenomenal growth which the IT giant might ably capture for its gains.
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Summary