By 2005, Microsoft may have made as many as 12,000 millionaires

Microsoft was the most popular stock in hedge fund portfolios as of Q1 2024

874 hedge funds held Microsoft stock at the time. This infographic shows more of the most popular stocks in hedge fund portfolios.

From 1986 to 2024, Microsoft has acquired at least 277 companies

Some of these acquisitions helped the company expand into enterprise software and services, including Visio, which integrated diagramming software into Microsoft Office, and Hotmail, which provided an email platform to customers. Recent acquisitions of Mojang and Activision Blizzard underscore an increasing emphasis on the video game industry.

As of 2024, server products and cloud services make up 40% of Microsoft's revenue

These products generated $97.7B in the 2023-24 fiscal year, followed by office products and cloud services, which accounted for $54.9B during the same period. The fastest-growing revenue source was gaming at 39%, driven by sales of Xbox and first-party software.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen were childhood friends before founding Microsoft

The two bonded over a teletype terminal at their school, which required a $40 hourly fee for computing time. They were banned from using the device after exploiting a bug that allowed them to bypass the fee, only to be later offered free computing time for finding more bugs.

Microsoft Excel is used by over a billion people worldwide

The upstart computer software company Microsoft launched its columns-and-rows spreadsheet program in 1985, enabling users to sort information, create charts, and perform calculations with minimal friction. It would be coupled with Microsoft Word and PowerPoint in 1990 as part of the Microsoft Office for Windows.

Three AI startup founders broke the record for the youngest self-made billionaire previously set by Mark Zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg became the youngest self-made billionaire in 2006 at 23 years old when Facebook held its initial public offering. In January of 2026, three AI startup founders—Brendan Foody, Adarsh Hiremath, and Surya Midha—broke Zuckerberg's record and became billionaires at 22 years old.

See Bloomberg's continuously updated Billionaire Index

This ranking, updated daily, shows a running tally of the world's 500 richest people. Tesla and SpaceX CEO has largely been atop the list, with a net worth of around $450B as of October 2025. Values fluctuate significantly as much of the wealth is tied to equity in companies.

Who are America's highest-paid CEOs?

As of 2024, Apple's Tim Cook, Starbucks' Brian Niccol, and Microsoft's Satya Nadella were among America's highest-paid CEOs, each making tens of millions of dollars per year.

Many of the top companies in the US by market cap began as tech startups

Combined, the top seven companies by market cap in the US as of December 2024—Apple, Nvidia, Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Tesla—were worth more than $16T at the time.

Around 60% of female billionaires in the US are considered self-made

There are 154 female billionaires in America, and around 60% of them are considered at least partially self-made—meaning some of their wealth comes from a business venture launched on their own. Alice Walton, the founder of Walmart's daughter, is the richest woman in the US, clocking a net worth of $138B. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

In 1999, Microsoft and Intel’s addition signaled the information tech era for the Dow

Microsoft and Intel became the first information technology firms added to the DJIA. Their inclusion marked a turning point—the digital revolution and tech began to drive the American economy.

The Giving Pledge was a movement started by Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Melinda Gates

The Giving Pledge was started to encourage the world’s richest individuals to donate most of their wealth either during their lives or in their wills. Buffett has committed to donating 99% of his money.

The number of billionaires in Saudi Arabia is projected to increase by 183% by 2031

Countries in the Middle East and Asia are projected to have some of the largest economic expansions by 2031, including within their billionaire populations. The global average growth projection for billionaires is 26% between 2026 and 2031.

Bezos owned roughly 8% of Amazon as of 2025

Three decades after founding Amazon, Jeff Bezos has built a sprawling empire of businesses and financial interests. Other large stakeholders in the company include Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy and Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott. This article provides more details on who owns how much of Amazon.

See a website that tracks layoffs

A startup founder has been tracking tech layoffs since 2020. In 2025, 124,201 tech employees were laid off, per the website.

If you'd invested $1K in Apple stock in 2005, you'd have roughly $130K as of 2025

Over the past 20 years, Apple stock generated an annualized total return of about 27.6%. Learn more about how those numbers came to be in this article.

The number of publicly traded companies has decreased significantly

The stock market hit a peak in 1996, when more than 7,000 companies were publicly traded. But in 2024, there were nearly half that many publicly traded companies.

Warren Buffett was famously anti-tech stock during the 1990s dot-com boom

Buffett said that tech is something that Berkshire Hathaway doesn't "understand, so we don't invest in it." This philosophy led him not to invest in Yahoo or Microsoft during this time. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Eleven of modern history's greatest investors

The greatest investors have all made a fortune off of their success and, in many cases, have helped millions of others achieve similar returns. Read about the lives and approaches of Carl Icahn, Warren Buffett, George Soros, and more.

Microsoft’s 'Blue Screen of Death' was a symbol of computer crashes for over 30 years

In 2025, the symbol was replaced with a "Black Screen of Death" for improved readability and alignment with Windows 11's modern design. It became a pop culture symbol after appearing in Bill Gates' live tech demo of Windows 98.

PayPal's Peter Thiel turned his Roth IRA into $5B

In 1999, tech titan Peter Thiel had a Roth IRA with roughly $2K in it. By 2019, that tax-free account was worth $5B. For context, the average Roth IRA was worth roughly $39K at the end of 2018. Naturally, Thiel had a few investment options that the average person probably doesn’t have access to—but the story of his IRA’s boom is nonetheless fascinating.

Massachusetts is the state with the highest median household income for young Americans at $123.2K per year

Americans ages 25 through 44 make more in some states than others. While Massachusetts took the top billing, Mississippi came in last place out of all 50 states at $66K per year—a roughly 87% difference. However, it's important to remember that the cost of living in many of the highest-earning states in the US is significantly higher than the cost of living in the lowest-earning states.

Many dot-com companies spent some investor money on expensive parties

Parties hosted by dot-com companies were known to be extravagant and expensive. Technology companies in the Bay Area hosted between 15 and 20 parties a week on average, which cost between $30K and $50K on average.

The US federal government employs roughly 3 million people

Tracking began in 1939, when the federal workforce consisted of about 1 million people. The total peaked in 1990 at 3.4 million, and hit a recent low in 2014 at 2.7 million.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.

SoftBank lost billions of dollars on WeWork. Meanwhile, WeWork’s founder walked away a billionaire

In the years leading up to WeWork’s bankruptcy, the tech holding company SoftBank invested roughly $16B into the company.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

SpaceX's S-1 or 'prospectus' revealed many previously unknown details about the company, including its unprofitability despite doing $18.7B in revenue in 2025, exactly how many voting shares Elon Musk will have in the company (roughly 85%), and more.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

Calculate how much of your tax dollars go to each federal program based on your income, filing status, and number of children

Warren Buffett's former professor Benjamin Graham is known as the 'father of value investing,' a strategy in which investors seek to buy stocks trading below their intrinsic worth.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

A century of Billboard issues documenting the evolution of popular music.

11 people died from firework injuries in the US in 2024.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Trace how the Bill of Rights, inspired by centuries of political theory, took shape between 1774 and 1789.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Domino's Pizza's 30-minute delivery guarantee was responsible for the chain's 1980s surge, but it was discontinued after the company was found liable for delivery driver accidents.

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

An Ebola vaccine was developed during the 2018 west African Ebola outbreak, but the 2026 Ebola outbreak is with a different species of the virus, not the one that the vaccine is approved to treat.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

One of the most famous portraits ever taken is 'Afghan Girl' (1984) by Steve McCurry, yet the subject Sharbat Gula went much of her life without being identified or benefitting from the image's success.