Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella delivers the keynote address during the 2016 Microsoft Build Developer Conference on March 30, 2016 in San Francisco (AFP / Justin Sullivan)
New York: Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) market capitalization topped $500bn for the first time since 2000 yesterday, after the technology giant's stock rose following another quarter of results that beat Wall Street's expectations.
Shares of the world's biggest software company rose as much as 2.1 percent to $65.64, an all-time high, in early trading, valuing the company at $510.37bn.
The last time Microsoft was valued more was in March 2000, during the heyday of the dotcom era, when it had a market value of a little above $550bn, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Despite the gains, Microsoft still lags Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) market capitalization of about $642 billion and Google-parent Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) market value of a little more than $570bn.
Microsoft reported second-quarter results on Thursday that beat analysts' average estimate for both revenue and profit, mainly due to its fast-growing cloud computing business.
The company's profit and revenue have now topped Wall Street's expectations in seven of the last eight quarters.
