Microsoft Corporation is a multinational technology company whose popular IT and software products, such as Windows and Excel, have become household names. It is considered one of the big five tech giants in the US, alongside Apple, Amazon, Google, and Facebook-owner Meta. Founded by childhood friends Bill Gates and Paul Allen in Albuquerque, New Mexico in April 1975, the company began life selling BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800 microcomputer designed by MITS. In 1980, IBM asked the company to produce the operating system for the first IBM personal computer. This was the birth of its first major product, the MS-DOS operating system – a system that was licensed by most PC brands at the time and generated vast revenues for the young company. In 1979, it moved from Albuquerque to Bellevue, Washington, 1,400 miles away. Then, in 1986, the company relocated its headquarters from Bellevue to nearby Redmond, Washington, where it continues to operate today.