Microsoft Turns 50
On April 4, 2025, Microsoft turns 50 years old — exactly half a century ago, school friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen registered a company that over several decades has become one of the largest technology corporations in the world.
The history of Microsoft began in 1975 in a garage in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Two college friends, programmers Bill Gates, then 19, and Paul Allen, 22, dreamed of making computers accessible to everyone. A key milestone in the company’s history was its partnership with IBM in 1980, which made Microsoft MS-DOS the standard operating system in the PC industry. A few years later, the company released Windows, laying the foundation for its future dominance in the software market. Over the past five decades, the company has continually adapted to technological changes and expanded its business into new areas. Today, it is not just a software company, but a global technology empire with a presence in almost every sector. As of March 2025, Microsoft is the third most valuable company in the world, after Apple and Nvidia.
Half a century after its founding, Microsoft continues to influence the face of the global technology scene. From two enthusiasts to billions of users; from BASIC for the Altair 8800 to multifunctional services based on artificial intelligence. The history of Microsoft is a story of how a passion for technology and the ability to change in time allow the company not only to survive, but to set the rules of the game on a global scale.
