Microsoft 50th anniversary

By JuditW
  • Bill Gates and Paul Allen started Microsoft

  • Located in Japan - first step of global footprint

  • Microsoft’s entry into the operating systems business

  • Bill Gates announced Microsoft Windows

  • Microsoft moved its headquarters to Redmond

  • Microsoft went public

  • Born of Office

  • Microsoft Research was created to expand the reach of personal computing technology.

  • Windows 95 released

  • New product: Visual Studio 97 was the first comprehensive set of tools for developers

  • New live gaming experience: Xbox

  • Visual Studio .NET - free, open source, cross platform framework

  • Internet version of Windows = Windows Azure

  • Bing the search engine published

  • Flagship suite has born for collaboration - launch of Office 365

  • Skype become part of the family

  • Surface hybrid tablet appears

  • Microsoft's launch of Office for iPad - across device experience

  • Purchase of Minecraft

  • Mission statement created - “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more”

  • Windows 10 rolled out

  • Acquisition of LinkedIn

  • Microsoft Teams launched

  • Highest-capacity subsea cable launched to cross the Atlantic Ocean

  • Xbox Adaptive Controller for players with disabilities

  • GitHub acquisition

  • Microsoft announced it will be carbon negative by 2030, and by 2050 will remove from the environment all the carbon it has emitted since it was founded in 1975.

  • One of the top five supercomputers is built to train AI

  • Windows 11 announced

  • Nuance acquisition - shared vision to build outcomes-based AI

  • GitHub Copilot - the hit product of the generative AI age

  • New paradigm for search: AI powered Copilot for the Web

  • Copilot - introduction of everyday AI companion in Bing, Edge, M365 and Windows11

  • acquisition of Activision Blizzard - cross device gaming experience

  • Debute of Phi family of AI models

  • Copilot + PC, PC designed for AI

  • Azure Quantum

  • Microsoft announced the world's first quantum chip