# Microsoft > Microsoft, the US technology company behind Windows and Azure, holds a 27% stake in OpenAI and faces recurring antitrust scrutiny in the US and EU. **Meta:** type: reference · date: 2026-07-03 · heads: · 4 takes · 4 lenses · 3 regions ## What it is Microsoft Corporation is a US technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington, founded on April 4, 1975, by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. It operates three segments: Productivity and Business Processes (Microsoft 365, LinkedIn, Dynamics 365), Intelligent Cloud (Azure, GitHub, server products), and More Personal Computing (Windows, Xbox, Surface, Bing). Azure is the world's second-largest cloud platform by revenue, behind Amazon Web Services. Microsoft holds a 27% equity stake in OpenAI, the most commercially significant AI investment in the technology industry as of mid-2026. Satya Nadella has served as CEO since February 2014; Brad Smith serves as vice chair and president. ## History Gates and Allen built Microsoft on operating-system licensing, first supplying IBM's PC in 1981, then dominating personal computing through the Windows franchise for the following two decades. The first major regulatory reckoning came in May 1998, when the US Department of Justice and 20 US states filed antitrust suits alleging Microsoft illegally maintained its Windows monopoly by tying Internet Explorer to the operating system and suppressing Netscape Navigator. Microsoft settled with the DOJ in November 2001, avoiding a court-ordered breakup but accepting behavioral remedies. The European Commission imposed a €497 million fine in March 2004 for bundling Windows Media Player with Windows, then an additional €899 million in February 2008 for non-compliance. Major acquisitions since: LinkedIn (2016, US$26.2 billion), GitHub (2018, US$7.5 billion), ZeniMax Media/Bethesda (2021, US$8.1 billion), and Activision Blizzard, closed October 13, 2023, for US$68.7 billion, the largest in Microsoft's history. The US Federal Trade Commission sued to block Activision Blizzard; US District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied the injunction in July 2023. The UK Competition and Markets Authority initially blocked the deal in April 2023, then cleared it in October 2023 after Microsoft divested Activision's cloud-streaming rights outside the European Economic Area to Ubisoft. The FTC appealed; the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in 2025, but the deal remains closed. ## Current state In fiscal year 2025 (ended June 30, 2025), Microsoft posted US$281.7 billion in total revenue, US$128.5 billion in operating income, and US$101.8 billion in net income, employing 228,000 people globally. In Q3 fiscal 2026 (ended March 31, 2026), revenue reached US$82.9 billion, up 18% year-over-year, with Azure growing 40%. Microsoft Cloud revenue was US$54.5 billion for the quarter. The AI business, anchored by Azure OpenAI Service and Microsoft 365 Copilot, reached a US$37 billion annual run rate in Q3 fiscal 2026, up 123% year-over-year, with 20 million paid enterprise Copilot seats by April 2026. Microsoft's 2026 capital expenditure is approximately US$190 billion, part of the [combined US$725 billion hyperscaler infrastructure buildout](/zh/n/hyperscaler-capex-725bn-2026). The EU antitrust investigation into Microsoft Teams tying, opened formally in July 2023 and escalated to a Statement of Objections in June 2024, closed in December 2024 after Microsoft agreed to unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365 globally. No fine was imposed. The [June 2026 GitHub Copilot billing cycle](/zh/n/github-copilot-billing-shock-jun29) exposed 10x to 50x cost spikes for agentic developers, surfacing friction in Microsoft's AI monetization model. ## Relationships Microsoft's 27% stake in OpenAI was worth approximately US$135 billion at the March 2026 [SoftBank-led funding round valuation](/zh/n/openai-122bn-softbank-round-2026). Azure serves as OpenAI's exclusive cloud infrastructure provider under agreements extending through at least 2030. The [OpenAI confidential S-1 filing](/zh/n/openai-confidential-ipo-trillion-2026) in June 2026 set up a public listing most likely in 2027, with Microsoft's stake subject to gradual dilution as new investors enter. GitHub, acquired in 2018, serves more than 150 million developers globally as of mid-2026 and is a primary distribution channel for [AI coding tools](/zh/n/gpt-55-codex-computer-use-2026), including GitHub Copilot. ## What to watch - Whether the US DOJ or EU competition authorities open fresh proceedings targeting Microsoft's OpenAI stake as a structural competition concern in cloud AI. - The pace of Azure OpenAI Service growth and whether the US$37 billion AI run rate sustains triple-digit expansion into fiscal 2027. - Resolution of the US Ninth Circuit FTC appeal on the Activision Blizzard injunction, which remained procedurally alive as of mid-2026. - How the [June 2026 GitHub Copilot billing controversy](/zh/n/github-copilot-billing-shock-jun29) reshapes enterprise AI adoption and whether it draws pricing scrutiny from US or EU regulators. ## Regional takes (batched by bias / lens) ### official record - **Microsoft Investor Relations** (north-america, en) — Microsoft's official investor relations hub; documents Q3 fiscal 2026 results including US$82.9 billion quarterly revenue, Azure 40% YoY growth, and US$37 billion AI annual run rate. Source: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor ### official company profile - **Microsoft Newsroom: Facts About Microsoft** (north-america, en) — Microsoft's official corporate facts page: founded 1975, incorporated June 25 1981, public since March 13 1986, 228,000 employees globally as of June 30 2025, milestone timeline covering Windows, Office, Xbox, Azure, and Copilot. Source: https://news.microsoft.com/facts-about-microsoft/ ### financial and market statistics - **SQ Magazine** (global, en) — Aggregated statistics updated to mid-2026: FY2025 revenue US$281.7 billion, Q3 FY26 Microsoft Cloud revenue US$54.5 billion, AI run rate US$37 billion up 123% YoY, 20 million paid Copilot seats, Windows 63.66% global desktop OS share. Source: https://sqmagazine.co.uk/microsoft-statistics/ ### regulatory record - **European Commission** (europe, en) — EU Commission July 2023 press release opening formal antitrust proceedings against Microsoft for tying Teams to Microsoft 365 and Office 365, following a 2020 complaint from Slack. Source: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_23_3991 ## Across the graph - Related: [[github-copilot-billing-shock-jun29]], [[openai-confidential-ipo-trillion-2026]], [[openai-122bn-softbank-round-2026]], [[hyperscaler-capex-725bn-2026]], [[gpt-55-codex-computer-use-2026]] - Entities: Corporate:microsoft, Satya Nadella, Openai, Github, Activision Blizzard --- Canonical: https://rbtfl.xyz/zh/n/microsoft-dossier