Words of Wisdom

Bill Gates once told me he’d rather have people using unlicensed copies of his software than licensed copies of his competitors’ products.

At the time, I thought it was a clever way to justify piracy. Now I understand—it was a long-term market share play, and Microsoft executed it masterfully.

Fast forward to Q2 FY24, and Microsoft just posted $62 billion in revenue, up 18% year-over-year, with a 35% net margin. That’s not just growth—it’s dominance.

So where’s it all coming from?

✅ $24B from Server (Azure) — +22% Y/Y.

✅ $13.5B from Office — the productivity suite that once ran rampant on bootleg CDs now anchors recurring enterprise subscriptions.

✅ $7.1B from Gaming — up 49% Y/Y thanks to Xbox and content/cloud integration.

✅ $5.3B from Windows — still the OS standard across industries.

✅ $4.2B from LinkedIn — the professional network is now a solid revenue engine.

✅ $4.8B from “Other”, including things like GitHub Copilot and AI services.

And here’s what’s staggering:

📈 Gross profit: $42.4B (68% margin)

📈 Operating profit: $27.0B

📈 Net profit: $21.9B

This is what happens when you think long-term. The seeds sown in the ’80s and ‘90s—wider reach, even at the cost of piracy—blossomed into the most profitable software ecosystem on the planet.

Lesson for all of us: Market share today, monetization tomorrow.

You don’t need to win every sale—just make sure you’re in every workflow.