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)

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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.
Paul Allen January 21, 1953 Co‑founder Technical drive, co‑developed early software (Altair BASIC), helped secure the first big opportunities.

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.