Microsoft Research

Microsoft Research
Founded1991; 33 years ago (1991)
Founders
TypeDivision
OwnerMicrosoft
Key people
SubsidiariesHavok Group
Employees~500[1] (in in 2016)
Websitewww.microsoft.com/research/

Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid,[2] Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technological innovation in collaboration with academic, government, and industry researchers. The Microsoft Research team has more than 1,000 computer scientists, physicists, engineers, and mathematicians, including Turing Award winners,[3] Fields Medal winners, MacArthur Fellows, and Dijkstra Prize winners.

Between 2010 and 2018, 154,000 AI patents were filed worldwide, with Microsoft having by far the largest percentage of those patents, at 20%.[4] According to estimates in trade publications, Microsoft spent about $6 billion annually in research initiatives from 2002 to 2010 and has spent from $10–14 billion annually since 2010.[5][6]

Microsoft Research has made significant advances in the field of AI which it has infused in its products including Kinect, Bing, Holo Lens, Cortana, Microsoft Translator, Linkedin, Havok and Dynamics to provide its customers with more benefits and better service.[5]

The mission statement of MSR is:

  1. Expand the state of the art in each of the areas in which we do research
  2. Rapidly transfer innovative technologies into Microsoft products
  3. Ensure that Microsoft products have a future
  1. ^ Dina Bass, Jack Clark (25 January 2016). "How Microsoft plans to beat Google and Facebook to the Next Tech Breakthrough". Bloomberg. Retrieved 3 November 2021.
  2. ^ "Rick Rashid: Emeritus Researcher". Microsoft.
  3. ^ McCraken, Harry (13 February 2019). "Still Boldly Going". Fast Company.
  4. ^ Louis Columbus, January 6, 2019 Microsoft Leads The AI Patent Race Going Into 2019, Forbes
  5. ^ a b "Microsoft research and development expenses". Notesmatic. 9 May 2018.
  6. ^ Togyer, Jason (7 August 2009). "Still Boldly Going". Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science.