Microsoft at 50: Bill Gates is Gifting Everyone With the Company’s Original Source Code

Bill Gates wrote, “Before there was Office or Windows 95 or Xbox or AI, there was Altair BASIC.

Fifty years ago, Bill Gates and his childhood friend Paul Allen founded a company called “Micro-Soft” in a strip mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Half a century later, the company has cemented its place among tech giants and ranks as the world’s second-largest company. Currently, the only company with a higher market cap is Apple, maker of the ubiquitous iPhone.

While Microsoft is reflecting on its past successes in honor of its 50-year anniversary this April, including Gates sharing the company’s original source code, the tech giant is also hustling to secure its place among the leaders of the artificial intelligence revolution. After largely missing the boat on smartphones and the shift to mobile devices, Microsoft is hoping to avoid a repeat of this mistake and ...