Microsoft completes its initial public offering
On 13 March 1986 Microsoft completed its IPO, a completed capital-markets instrument that funded later Windows scale and created a liquid Gates stake. Neighbouring DOS 1981 is the product prior. In the causal graph this event strengthens the driver Industrial-Policy Activism.
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On 13 March 1986 Microsoft completed its IPO, a completed capital-markets instrument that funded later Windows scale and created a liquid Gates stake.
Context
NASDAQ listed the shares. Neighbouring DOS 1981 is the product prior. Neighbouring 1998 DOJ is later antitrust. He did not write the Securities Act.
DOS 1981 is neighbouring. Windows 95 is later product.
Bill Gates was Microsoft CEO until January 2000, chairman until February 2014, then a technical adviser until 2020, and a Gates Foundation co-chair. That is not authorship of every Windows copy, every GAVI dose, or every IRS schedule. Melinda French Gates is a different person. Bill Clinton is PER-000772, a different person. A pledge is not a coverage rate. A docket is not a personality.
Why it matters
The path is industrial-policy activism and income-inequality mixed: a completed IPO funds scale and concentrates founder wealth.
Who was responsible
Contribution type and responsibility level for each recorded actor — not sole-author shorthand.
Bill Gates
PersonDirect responsibility
responsibility level 0.55 · verified
He was CEO-founder selling and retaining stock. Underwriters priced. Investors bought. The SEC registered.
What changed
Fact → Driver → Indicator. Relationship strength orders the paths; it is not the observed indicator movement.
- FactMicrosoft completes its initial public offering
- strengthensDriverIndustrial-Policy Activism
impact weight 0.4 · Effect from 13 March 1986 · verified
A completed software IPO is a capital-and-scale instrument.
- FactMicrosoft completes its initial public offering
- strengthensDriverIncome Inequality
impact weight 0.3 · Effect from 13 March 1986 · verified
Evidence
The sources behind this fact and its verification state.
- 1.Reuters — Microsoft goes publicReuters · High credibility · verified
- 2.SEC — Microsoft Corporation initial public offering, 13 March 1986United States Securities and Exchange Commission · High credibility · verified
What the sources establish
United States Securities and Exchange Commission carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.
Established: 13 March 1986 Microsoft IPO, independently reported.
Not established: a unique later Gini from the opening bell, or that every employee was thereby rich.
Underwriters priced. Investors bought. The SEC registered.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies Microsoft completes its initial public offering, not a later speech about Microsoft completes its initial public offering.
Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. If a later repeal, stay, or successor instrument exists, it needs its own date and its own row. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He was CEO-founder selling and retaining stock. Underwriters priced. Investors bought. The SEC registered. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series.
Causal path
How this event connects to drivers and indicators in the graph.
- ActorBill Gates
- contributed toFactMicrosoft completes its initial public offering
- strengthensDrivers (2)Industrial-Policy Activism
Cite this page
Factrail. (2026). Microsoft completes its initial public offering. Factrail. https://factrail.ai/facts/ms-ipo-1986
https://factrail.ai/facts/ms-ipo-1986
Accessed 15 October 2026.
By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed
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