1 for Nadella, 0 for Bezos... Not Amazon, not Google, but Microsoft just became the second American company to ever hit a $2T market cap. It's also the third company to ever join the $2T "Platinum Pegasus Club." Microsoft doubled its market value in just two years, partly thanks to corona-conomy demand. WFH and school-from-home boosted Microsoft's cloud services, gaming consoles, and PCs.
- +65%: How much MSFT stock has soared since the beginning of March last year.
- +19%: How much Microsoft's sales grew last quarter compared to March 2020.
- $2T: MSFT is worth more than half as much as the entire German stock market.
To the Windows... Today, Microsoft will finally unveil a new version of Windows OS, which is losing market share to Apple's Mac OS & Google’s Chrome OS. In 2010, Windows ran on 98% of the world’s computers — today, it runs on 73%. Windows made Bill Gates rich, but it's no longer Microsoft's biggest profit puppy. How Microsoft makes its $$$, by category:
- Cloud = 36% of sales: Server products and cloud services are booming. Microsoft's Azure cloud revenue grew 50% last quarter.
- Productivity and Biz Apps = 33% of sales: That includes Office subscriptions. But the fastest growers were Dynamics cloud (+26%) and LinkedIn (+25%).
- Personal computing = 31% of sales: Xbox was the fastest grower last quarter (+34%), Surface grew 12%, and Windows/PCs grew just 10%.
Microsoft might not be as exciting... as some of its tech peers — but it's necessary for many of the world's companies. Instead of focusing on delightful features (think: emojis, filters, and eye-catching designs), Microsoft is focused on basic but crucial biz necessities. That's why so many companies still depend on it today. Now, business cloud and productivity tools are its biggest growth drivers. Those dull but necessary tools helped it notch a massive $2T valuation.