Yes—Microsoft is an American company, headquartered in Redmond, Washington, and listed on the Nasdaq since 1986.
Yes, Microsoft is an American company. Microsoft Corp is headquartered in Redmond, Washington, trades publicly on the Nasdaq under the ticker MSFT, and has operated from its home state since its founding. The facts on record leave little ambiguity: this is a US-based software giant with deep American roots.
Where Microsoft Calls Home
Microsoft's headquarters sit in Redmond, Washington, a city in the Pacific Northwest that has become synonymous with the company itself. That address isn't a mailing convenience or a shell registration—it's where the company's leadership and core operations are based.
A Founding Story Rooted in the US
Microsoft was founded in 1975, placing its origins squarely in American business history during the early personal-computing era. Five decades later, the company remains anchored in the same country where it began.
Publicly Traded on a US Exchange
Microsoft went public in March 1986, and it has traded on the Nasdaq exchange ever since under the symbol MSFT. A US stock listing doesn't by itself make a company American, but combined with its headquarters and founding history, it reinforces the picture of a firm built and governed within the United States.
Scale on the Public Markets
As a publicly traded firm, Microsoft's market capitalization stands at $3.1 trillion, reflecting how investors value the company today. That scale places it among the largest publicly traded companies in the American market.
What Microsoft Actually Does
Microsoft develops and licenses consumer and enterprise software, and it's best known for Windows operating systems and the Office productivity suite. The company organizes its business into three roughly equal segments.
Three Core Businesses
- Productivity and business processes — legacy Office, Office 365, Exchange, SharePoint, Skype, LinkedIn, and Dynamics
- Intelligent cloud — Azure, Windows Server OS, and SQL Server, covering infrastructure- and platform-as-a-service offerings
- More personal computing — Windows Client, Xbox, Bing search, display advertising, and Surface devices
This breadth spans everything from office software used in workplaces worldwide to cloud infrastructure and gaming hardware, all managed from its American base.
The Numbers Behind the Name
Microsoft's financial scale underscores its position in the American software industry. In fiscal year 2025, the company reported revenue of $281.7 billion and net income of $101.8 billion. Its total assets stand at $619.0 billion.
A Sizable American Workforce
Microsoft employs approximately 228,000 people, a workforce spread across its software, cloud, and hardware businesses. That employee base is part of what makes Microsoft not just a listed American company but a major American employer.
Listed in the American Companies Directory
Microsoft is included in the americancompanies.com directory of US-based companies, a categorization that aligns with its headquarters location and stock listing. For readers researching corporate nationality, this kind of directory placement serves as another data point alongside the company's founding, headquarters, and exchange listing.
The Bottom Line
Put together—a 1975 founding, a Redmond, Washington headquarters, a Nasdaq listing dating to 1986, and inclusion in a directory of US-based companies—the answer to whether Microsoft is an American company is straightforward. It is, by every fact on record, an American software company operating at global scale.
