Microsoft Corporation

Funds global innovation through mixed cash grants and large-scale in-kind cloud resources.

Microsoft Corporation is a publicly traded technology company headquartered in Redmond, Washington, founded in 1975. Its grant activity sits alongside a much larger corporate philanthropy and in-kind support footprint, so the company funds research, startups, and nonprofits through several distinct routes rather than one single grants office. The result is a broad corporate platform with cash, cloud credits, and software access all in play.

The research side includes the Microsoft Research Fellowship and the Microsoft Research Faculty Fellowship, while Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub, Microsoft for Nonprofits, and Accelerating Foundation Models Research lean on Azure credits and product support. The record also ties Microsoft Philanthropies to more than $5 billion in announced annual discounts, donations, and grants for nonprofits, which shows the scale of its in-kind commitment.

Its substantive focus reaches across AI infrastructure, quantum, climate, hardware, edge devices, and cyber hardware. Dedicated teams such as Microsoft Research and the AI for Good Lab handle specialized calls, so applicants usually need to match the right vehicle to the right problem rather than approach Microsoft as a single funding source.