Microsoft

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Big Tech, companyPublic

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Formation	1975
Founders	Bill Gates, Paul Allen
Headquarters	Microsoft Redmond campus, Redmond, Washington, U.S.
Type	Public
Subgroups	List of Microsoft subsidiaries
Staff	118,584
Interests	Mass surveillance, computers, internet, Platformization
Sponsor of	Center for Global Development,Center for American Progress,Institute for Strategic Dialogue,European Forum Alpbach,University of Sydney/United States Studies Centre,Democracy and Culture Foundation
Started in 1975 with Paul Allen, Bill Gates developed Microsoft from a operating system maker of computers into one of the most prolific companies of all time, valued over $1 trillion, 3rd most valuable in the world. MS has over a billion in fines from corruption, mass surveillance violations & tax evasion. MS has market shares in dozens of markets, leading in the Platformization-epidemic of the 2010s started by big tech. It was the first partner in the NSA-PRISM program.

Microsoft is a software company founded by WEF/Global Leaders for Tomorrow/1993 members Bill Gates and Paul Allen, which has dominated the personal computer market for decades. A ruling in an antitrust law case decided to break-up the company, which was overturned on appeal.

Windows

Microsoft's flagship product is the operating system Windows, which runs on the majority of personal computers worldwide. Since early versions of the Windows operating system, Microsoft was accused of making their product more computing intensive than necessary to match new Intel processors in a "process of perpetual upgrades", as a "way of rubbing Intel's back so that Intel will give Microsoft preferential treatment". Windows made Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, one of the richest persons alive. Microsoft grew into a multi-billion dollar payer of fines for questionable business policies. Gates was called a "Napoleon", "unethical" and a "drug trafficker" repeatedly caught as a result of telephone wiretaps by the court of Washington D.C in a anti-trust lawsuit against Microsoft.

Windows 10

Full article: Windows

After the Edward Snowden Affair, Microsoft and other tech companies appear to have become more brazen about data collection. Windows 10 contains in its Terms & Conditions the admission that “Microsoft collects information about you, your devices, applications and networks, and your use of those devices, applications and networks. Examples of data we collect include your name, email address, preferences and interests; browsing, search and file history; phone call and SMS data; device configuration and sensor data; and application usage.”

Compaq legal battle

Microsoft threatened to cut off Compaq Computer's access to Windows 95 in 1997, because Compaq wanted to put the Netscape's browser icon on the desktop its Presario model rather than the Internet Explorer icon.

Mass surveillance

Full article: Mass surveillance

Windows has been suspected of cooperating with the deep state at least as far back as the August 1999 discovery of _NSAKey, although Microsoft denied it at the time, stating that "The key in question is a Microsoft key. It is maintained and safeguarded by Microsoft, and we have not shared this key with the NSA or any other party."

OpenAI

ChatGPT creator OpenAI, came under scrutiny in November 2023 when its board abruptly fired Sam Altman as CEO and re-hired him and a new board. {{#subobject: |Has superobject=Microsoft |Has objectClass=Quotation |Has author=Breck Dumas|+sep=, |Has text=“Following Altman's ouster, Microsoft swooped in to hire him along with OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman — who quit OpenAI in protest over Altman's termination — to lead a new advanced AI research team at Microsoft, and also offered to hire any other OpenAI employees who wanted to leave. Sam Altman is returning to OpenAI as CEO after his ousting last week, and three board members that participated in his termination have been removed. At that point, Microsoft, already majority owner in OpenAI, was positioned to essentially "acquire" OpenAI by absorbing its talent, after nearly all the startup's 770 or so workers signed a letter saying they would take Microsoft up on the offer unless Altman was reinstated.

However, a deal was ultimately reached for Altman to return to OpenAI rather than allowing the $90 billion company to collapse, in what Fortune tech reporter David Meyer wrote is an outcome that "is pretty ideal for Microsoft."” |Is about=Microsoft,OpenAI, Sam Altman, Microsoft, Artificial Intelligence|+sep=, |Has wikipediaPage= |Has location=|+sep=, |Has publicationDate=2023 |Sourced from=FOX News |Has sourceDetails= |Has sourceTitle= |Has sourceName=FOX News |Has sourceURL=https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/microsoft-celebrates-openais-return-stability

}}

“Following Altman's ouster, Microsoft swooped in to hire him along with OpenAI co-founder and president Greg Brockman — who quit OpenAI in protest over Altman's termination — to lead a new advanced AI research team at Microsoft, and also offered to hire any other OpenAI employees who wanted to leave.

Sam Altman is returning to OpenAI as CEO after his ousting last week, and three board members that participated in his termination have been removed. At that point, Microsoft, already majority owner in OpenAI, was positioned to essentially "acquire" OpenAI by absorbing its talent, after nearly all the startup's 770 or so workers signed a letter saying they would take Microsoft up on the offer unless Altman was reinstated.

However, a deal was ultimately reached for Altman to return to OpenAI rather than allowing the $90 billion company to collapse, in what Fortune tech reporter David Meyer wrote is an outcome that "is pretty ideal for Microsoft."”
Breck Dumas (2023) 

Whistleblower murder

In November 2024, Suchir Balaji, 26, a former OpenAI researcher known for whistleblowing on the company, was found dead inside his apartment. Despite abundant suspicious evidence to the contrary, the medical examiner's office determined the manner of death to be suicide and police officials said there was "currently, no evidence of foul play." Balaji's death comes three months after he publicly accused OpenAI of violating U.S. copyright law while developing ChatGPT.

XBox

Microsoft contractors have admitted to listening to users of XBoxes they "said that recordings were sometimes triggered and recorded by mistake".

Censorship

Full article: Censorship

Microsoft clandestinely installed the NewsGuard app into the mobile version of the Edge web browsers to help users in assessing the trustworthiness of news. On May 31, 2016, Microsoft agreed with Facebook, Google and Twitter to a European Union code of conduct obligating them to review "[the] majority of valid notifications for removal of illegal hate speech" posted on their services within 24 hours.

Videos

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Microsoft Still Promoting and Funding Sex Changes for Children (16:29) ~ The Lunduke Journal, 2025-03-10.

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What is going on at Open AI and why was Sam Altman fired? Let's look at the timeline of events and possible theories about the leadership change. - Fireship

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The Monopoly of Microsoft - 2015 - National Geographic

References