Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) was founded in 1975. It went public 11 years later in 1986 with a valuation of $777 million, and it has since grown into one of the largest companies in the world with a market capitalization of $3.3 trillion.

That means investors who bought Microsoft stock at its initial public offering (IPO) and held it until now would be sitting on a gain of 424,610% (excluding dividends). In dollar terms, an investment of just $240 back then would be worth a whopping $1 million today.

Microsoft was originally a software enterprise, and some of its earlier products, like Windows and Word, are still massively popular today. But the company has expanded into gaming, cloud computing, computer hardware, and now, artificial intelligence (AI), which could be Microsoft's largest opportunity ever

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Source Fool.com