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Microsoft's 1986 IPO

Its market cap hit $777 million and Bill Gates' net worth reached $350 million

Today, Apple, Amazon, and Alphabet (formerly Google) are larger than Microsoft, but the four companies are the only technology firms in the 2024 Fortune 20 list. To this day, young ambitious people enroll in school to get technical degrees in hopes of becoming the next Bill Gates, and venture capitalists like Kevin O’Leary and Marc Andreessen (himself a cofounder of a failed dotcom) prey on them. Short-lived randos like VA Linux, Geocities, Cyberrebate, and Internet America were able to come along for the ride while the market shook out.

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