who created microsoft
Microsoft was created by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975.
Quick Scoop
Who created Microsoft?
- Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen.
- They started the company on April 4, 1975, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
- The original name was “Micro-Soft,” combining “microcomputer” and “software.”
Why did they start it?
- Gates and Allen saw the potential of early personal computers like the Altair 8800.
- They began by writing a version of the BASIC programming language for the Altair.
- Their early success with Altair BASIC pushed them to turn their hobby into a full-time software company.
What happened next?
- In 1980, Microsoft struck a key deal to supply the operating system for IBM’s first personal computer, leading to MS‑DOS.
- In 1985, Microsoft launched the first version of Windows, building a graphical interface on top of MS‑DOS.
- Over the years, Microsoft expanded into Office, Xbox, cloud (Azure), and AI products, becoming one of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Founders at a glance (HTML table)
| Founder | Birthdate | Role | Key Contributions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bill Gates | October 28, 1955 | Co‑founder, first CEO | Business leadership, product vision, push into PC operating systems like MS‑DOS and Windows. | [7][9][1][3]
| Paul Allen | January 21, 1953 | Co‑founder | Technical drive, co‑developed early software (Altair BASIC), helped secure the first big opportunities. | [9][1][3][7]
Tiny origin story
Two childhood friends from Seattle, Bill Gates and Paul Allen, were obsessed with computers long before they were common in homes. When they saw a magazine cover featuring the Altair 8800 in 1975, they realized that personal computers were about to go mainstream and rushed to write a BASIC interpreter for it. The success of that project convinced them to found Microsoft, betting that software—more than hardware—would shape the future of computing.
TL;DR: Microsoft was created by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 to build software for early personal computers, and it grew into a global software, cloud, and AI giant.
Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.