# Paul Allen (slim) > Paul Allen is co-founder of Microsoft. Azure AI Content Safety (Prompt Shields), Azure Blob Storage, Azure DevOps MCP Server, Azure Document Intelligence, Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI), Azure Key Vault, Azure Maps, Azure MCP Server, Azure AI Speech speech-to-text, Azure AI Speech text-to-speech, Azure Translator, Microsoft Copilot Studio MCP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Foundry Local, Microsoft Advertising API, Microsoft Agent Framework, Microsoft-Decision-1, Microsoft Entra Agent ID, Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API), Microsoft Execution Containers, Microsoft Graph Calendar API, Microsoft Graph People and Contacts API, Microsoft Learn MCP Server, Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Graph), OneDrive and SharePoint files (Microsoft Graph), Outlook Mail (Microsoft Graph), Playwright MCP and Microsoft Power Automate on Anchor Terminal, with grades, an about and public profiles. - Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/paul-allen/index.md (~4,950 tokens) · this version ~4,780 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/paul-allen/index.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/paul-allen/ - Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · MCP: https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp · Updated: 2026-10-27 - Licence: CC BY 4.0, credit Anchor Terminal and link this page (https://www.anchorterminal.com/terms/#data) Co-founder, Microsoft. Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975. He left day-to-day work at the company in 1983 but stayed on its board as vice-chairman, and co-founded Vulcan Inc. ## What Paul builds - [Azure AI Content Safety (Prompt Shields)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-ai-content-safety.md), graded C, 60.7/100, in Guardrails & safety filters. Microsoft's API for analysing harmful text and images, detecting prompt injection and checking groundedness. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Azure Blob Storage](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-blob-storage.md), graded BB, 75.8/100, in File storage & sharing. Microsoft Azure's object storage for files, backups and application data. Agents call a REST API or the Azure SDKs on a storage account, signing in with Microsoft Entra ID, an account key or a shared access signature. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Azure DevOps MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-devops-mcp.md), graded B, 66.4/100, in Code & developer platforms. Microsoft's official MCP server for Azure DevOps Services. It gives agents work items, repositories, pull requests, pipelines, wikis, test plans and Advanced Security alerts, through a hosted endpoint with Microsoft Entra sign-in or a local npm package. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-27. - [Azure Document Intelligence](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-document-intelligence.md), graded B, 66.1/100, in Document parsing & extraction. Microsoft's Azure service for OCR, layout analysis and field extraction from PDFs, images and Office files. It has prebuilt models for invoices, receipts, identity and tax documents, and custom models. Access is a REST API with four SDKs. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-foundry-fine-tuning.md), graded C, 61.2/100, in Fine-tuning. Azure's managed service for supervised, preference and reinforcement fine-tuning of supported OpenAI and open-weight models. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Azure Key Vault](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-key-vault.md), graded BB, 74.8/100, in Secrets & credential vaults. Microsoft Azure's managed store for secrets, encryption keys and TLS certificates. Applications read secrets over a REST API or the Azure SDKs and CLI, signing in with Microsoft Entra ID and authorised by Azure role assignments. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Azure Maps](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-maps.md), graded B, 68/100, in Maps, geocoding & places. Microsoft Azure's mapping service. Its REST APIs at `atlas.microsoft.com` cover geocoding, reverse geocoding, place search, routing with traffic, map tiles, time zones and weather, with access by subscription key, SAS token or Microsoft Entra ID. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-27. - [Azure MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-mcp.md), graded BB, 70/100, in Cloud & infrastructure. Microsoft's official local MCP server for Azure (`@azure/mcp`, also on NuGet as Azure.Mcp). Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Azure AI Speech speech-to-text](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-speech-to-text.md), graded BB, 73.1/100, in Speech-to-text. Azure's speech-to-text service for transcribing audio. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Azure AI Speech text-to-speech](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-text-to-speech.md), graded BB, 71.5/100, in Text-to-speech. Azure's text-to-speech service for generating spoken audio. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Azure Translator](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/azure-translator.md), graded BB, 72/100, in Translation. Microsoft's translation API, now part of Foundry Tools. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft Copilot Studio MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/copilot-studio-mcp.md), graded D, 53.2/100, in Workflow automation. Microsoft's official MCP server for Copilot Studio, a local stdio bridge run with npx. After Microsoft work-account sign-in it exposes Copilot Studio's hosted tools for building, testing and monitoring agents and workflows, and for connector setup. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/dynamics-365-sales.md), graded B, 69.8/100, in CRM & customer platforms. Microsoft's sales CRM for accounts, contacts, leads and opportunities. Its data is held in Dataverse and reached through the Dataverse Web API (OData v4), SDKs for .NET and Python, and the Dataverse MCP server. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Foundry Local](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/foundry-local.md), graded C, 60.5/100, in Local AI. Microsoft's on-device model runtime, built on ONNX Runtime. Applications embed it through SDKs for C#, JavaScript, Python and Rust, and it can start an optional OpenAI-compatible server on localhost. A preview CLI is also available. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft Advertising API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-advertising-api.md), graded C, 60.4/100, in Advertising & campaign operations. Microsoft's API for Microsoft Advertising (formerly Bing Ads) search, shopping and audience campaigns. It covers campaign management, bulk upload and download, reporting, ad insight, billing and account management over REST and SOAP. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft Agent Framework](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-agent-framework.md), graded A, 82.4/100, in Agent frameworks & SDKs. Microsoft Agent Framework is an open-source SDK for building AI agents and multi-agent workflows in Python and .NET, with a Go version in public preview. Microsoft names it the successor to AutoGen and Semantic Kernel. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft-Decision-1](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-decision-1.md), graded E, 39.2/100, in Decision models. Microsoft-Decision-1 is a Microsoft model, post-trained from Qwen3.5-9B, that scores fixed answer options with a calibrated probability for each. It is in public preview on Microsoft Foundry and OpenRouter, at $0.042 per million input tokens. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-27. - [Microsoft Entra Agent ID](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-entra-agent-id.md), graded BB, 74.5/100, in Agent auth & delegated access. Microsoft Entra Agent ID is an identity type for AI agents in Microsoft Entra ID. Agents get their own directory identity, request OAuth 2.0 tokens autonomously or on behalf of a user, and are managed through Microsoft Graph. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-excel-graph.md), graded C, 58.6/100, in Spreadsheets & operational tables. Workbook endpoints of Microsoft Graph for Excel files stored in OneDrive for work or school and SharePoint. Calls read and write ranges, tables, charts and named items, and run Excel worksheet functions on a file in place. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft Execution Containers](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-execution-containers.md), graded BB, 76.4/100, in Code execution sandboxes. Microsoft Execution Containers (MXC) is an open-source SDK for running untrusted code in a local sandbox on Windows, Linux and macOS. An application embeds it through Node.js, .NET or Rust and sets filesystem, network and UI policy for each run. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft Graph Calendar API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-graph-calendar.md), graded B, 65.2/100, in Calendars & scheduling. Calendar endpoints of Microsoft Graph for Outlook, Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft Graph People and Contacts API](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-graph-people.md), graded B, 64.7/100, in Contacts & address books. Microsoft Graph endpoints for a user's Outlook personal contacts and contact folders, with delta sync, and the people API, which ranks the people most relevant to a user and supports fuzzy search. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Microsoft Learn MCP Server](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-learn-mcp.md), graded D, 48/100, in Code & developer platforms. Microsoft's hosted documentation server at learn.microsoft.com/api/mcp. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-27. - [Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Graph)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/microsoft-teams.md), graded B, 62.3/100, in Work & productivity. Microsoft Graph endpoints for Microsoft Teams. An app lists teams, channels and chats, reads and sends messages, manages members and receives change notifications over REST, with OAuth tokens from Microsoft Entra ID for work or school accounts. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [OneDrive and SharePoint files (Microsoft Graph)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/onedrive-sharepoint.md), graded B, 65.4/100, in File storage & sharing. Drive and driveItem endpoints of Microsoft Graph for files in OneDrive, OneDrive for work or school and SharePoint document libraries. Calls upload, download, list, search, share by link or invitation, and delete files and folders. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Outlook Mail (Microsoft Graph)](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/outlook-mail-graph.md), graded B, 66.4/100, in Mailbox access. Mail endpoints of Microsoft Graph for Outlook, Microsoft 365 and Exchange Online mailboxes. An app reads, searches, drafts, sends and files messages over REST with OAuth tokens from Microsoft Entra ID. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. - [Playwright MCP](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/playwright-mcp.md), graded B, 67.7/100, in Browser automation. Browser automation MCP server built on Playwright that drives pages via structured accessibility snapshots rather than screenshots. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-27. - [Microsoft Power Automate](https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/power-automate.md), graded B, 62/100, in Workflow automation. Microsoft's workflow builder for cloud flows across Microsoft 365, Dataverse and third-party connectors. Outside agents list, create, update and delete solution-aware flows through the Dataverse Web API, and start a flow through its HTTP request trigger. Co-founder, Microsoft, researched 2026-10-26. ## Works with - [Achint Srivastava](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/achint-srivastava/), VP of Software Engineering, Office of the CTO; Decision-1 launch author - [Bill Gates](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/bill-gates/), Co-founder, Microsoft - [Brandon Werner](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/brandon-werner/), Principal Product Architect; Agent ID creator - [Dan Hellem](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/dan-hellem/), Principal Product Manager, Azure DevOps - [Darrel Miller](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/darrel-miller/), Partner API Architect - [Dong Li](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/dong-li/), Partner Director; Head of Product, Azure Speech and Voice Agents - [Eric Imasogie](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/eric-imasogie/), Senior Product Manager; Microsoft Learn MCP server owner - [Faraz Siddiqui](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/faraz-siddiqui/), Senior Technical Program Manager; Product Manager for Azure Maps Geospatial APIs - [Gary Pretty](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/gary-pretty/), Principal Product Manager, Microsoft Copilot Studio - [Julie Strauss](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/julie-strauss/), Vice President, AI Sales, Marketing and Incubations - [Pieter de Bruin](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/pieter-de-bruin/), Technical Program Manager; Learn partnerships and MCP integrations - [Sandeep K Sen](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/sandeep-k-sen/), Product Manager, Azure MCP and CoreAI - [Shawn Henry](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/shawn-henry/), Principal Group Product Manager; Product Lead, Microsoft Agent Framework - [Tianqi Zhang](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/tianqi-zhang/), Principal Software Engineering Manager; Learn knowledge-discovery and MCP team - [Vamshidhar Kommineni](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/vamshidhar-kommineni/), Group Product Manager, Azure Storage - [Yury Semikhatsky](https://www.anchorterminal.com/people/yury-semikhatsky/), Principal Software Engineer; active Playwright MCP maintainer ## Questions ### Who is Paul Allen? Paul Allen co-founded Microsoft with Bill Gates in 1975. He left day-to-day work at the company in 1983 but stayed on its board as vice-chairman, and co-founded Vulcan Inc. ### What does Microsoft make? Anchor Terminal lists Azure AI Content Safety (Prompt Shields), Azure Blob Storage, Azure DevOps MCP Server, Azure Document Intelligence, Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI), Azure Key Vault, Azure Maps, Azure MCP Server, Azure AI Speech speech-to-text, Azure AI Speech text-to-speech, Azure Translator, Microsoft Copilot Studio MCP, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales, Foundry Local, Microsoft Advertising API, Microsoft Agent Framework, Microsoft-Decision-1, Microsoft Entra Agent ID, Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API), Microsoft Execution Containers, Microsoft Graph Calendar API, Microsoft Graph People and Contacts API, Microsoft Learn MCP Server, Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Graph), OneDrive and SharePoint files (Microsoft Graph), Outlook Mail (Microsoft Graph), Playwright MCP and Microsoft Power Automate from Microsoft. ### How are Paul's tools graded? Azure AI Content Safety (Prompt Shields) is graded C, 60.7 out of 100; Azure Blob Storage is graded BB, 75.8 out of 100; Azure DevOps MCP Server is graded B, 66.4 out of 100; Azure Document Intelligence is graded B, 66.1 out of 100; Microsoft Foundry fine-tuning (Azure OpenAI) is graded C, 61.2 out of 100; Azure Key Vault is graded BB, 74.8 out of 100; Azure Maps is graded B, 68 out of 100; Azure MCP Server is graded BB, 70 out of 100; Azure AI Speech speech-to-text is graded BB, 73.1 out of 100; Azure AI Speech text-to-speech is graded BB, 71.5 out of 100; Azure Translator is graded BB, 72 out of 100; Microsoft Copilot Studio MCP is graded D, 53.2 out of 100; Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales is graded B, 69.8 out of 100; Foundry Local is graded C, 60.5 out of 100; Microsoft Advertising API is graded C, 60.4 out of 100; Microsoft Agent Framework is graded A, 82.4 out of 100; Microsoft-Decision-1 is graded E, 39.2 out of 100; Microsoft Entra Agent ID is graded BB, 74.5 out of 100; Microsoft Excel (Microsoft Graph workbook API) is graded C, 58.6 out of 100; Microsoft Execution Containers is graded BB, 76.4 out of 100; Microsoft Graph Calendar API is graded B, 65.2 out of 100; Microsoft Graph People and Contacts API is graded B, 64.7 out of 100; Microsoft Learn MCP Server is graded D, 48 out of 100; Microsoft Teams (Microsoft Graph) is graded B, 62.3 out of 100; OneDrive and SharePoint files (Microsoft Graph) is graded B, 65.4 out of 100; Outlook Mail (Microsoft Graph) is graded B, 66.4 out of 100; Playwright MCP is graded B, 67.7 out of 100; Microsoft Power Automate is graded B, 62 out of 100, on Anchor Terminal's benchmark, which scores every listing against the same checklist. ## Sources - https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/leadership/bill-gates - https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/verified-accounts - https://www.linkedin.com/company/microsoft/ - https://x.com/Microsoft/with_replies - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/support/ - https://support.microsoft.com/en-us - https://www.linkedin.com/in/vamshikommineni/ - https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?keywords=%22Azure%20Storage%22%20%22product%22 - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/devops/azure-devops-remote-mcp-server-ga/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danhellem/details/experience/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danhellem - https://x.com/AzureDevOps - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/mcp-server/mcp-server-overview?view=azure-devops - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/devops/user-guide/provide-feedback?view=azure-devops - https://www.linkedin.com/in/farazsiddiqui2025/details/experience/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/farazsiddiqui2025 - https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/microsoft-azure/ - https://x.com/Azure - https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/products/azure-maps - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/azure-sdk/azure-mcp-server-3-0-stable-release/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandeepksen/ - https://github.com/microsoft/mcp/blob/main/servers/Azure.Mcp.Server/SUPPORT.md - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dong-li-19956ba3/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/garypretty/ - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365/blog/it-professional/2025/10/21/sales-research-bench/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-strauss-6116b018/ - https://www.microsoft.com/ - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics-365/support - https://www.foundrylocal.ai/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-patrick-henry/ - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/agent-framework/semantic-kernel-and-microsoft-agent-framework/ - https://commandline.microsoft.com/microsoft-decision-1-model-foundry/ - https://www.linkedin.com/posts/achint_microsoft-decision-1-our-model-for-fast-activity-7514401721931161600-OkR5 - https://www.linkedin.com/in/achint - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/cognitive-services-support-options - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/foundry/foundry-models/how-to/use-foundry-models-microsoft-decision - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandwe/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/darrelmiller/ - https://devblogs.microsoft.com/engineering-at-microsoft/how-we-built-the-microsoft-learn-mcp-server/ - https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-imasogie-mba-4155052b - https://cn.linkedin.com/in/tianqi-zhang-07342831 - https://www.linkedin.com/in/pieterjmdebruin/ - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/support/mcp - https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/mcp - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yury-semikhatsky/details/experience/ - https://github.com/yury-s - https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp/commits/main/ - https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp/commit/f183dad4a52965583e3cc1d59b88cdc279e2e57d - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yury-semikhatsky - https://playwright.dev/community/welcome - https://github.com/microsoft/playwright-mcp - https://playwright.dev/ These are the people building the tools we list, named for their public role in the company or project behind a listing, from public pages, with the date it was researched.