Despite Microsoft’s meteoric rise, and one that made Bill Gates a billionaire, the same co-founder admitted he didn’t truly see the company as a success until the late 1990s, and often felt just one mistake away from death.
Microsoft isn’t called the software giant for nothing. Long before the razzle-dazzle of AI and Copilot, its bread and butter were Office and Windows, and they still are — driving broad adoption worldwide. That dominance helped transform Microsoft into a Fortune 500 powerhouse, with a market capitalization of $3.05 trillion at the time of writing.
