Autodesk, Inc.
Company History
Autodesk History: Founding, Growth & Key Milestones
Founded 1982 in Mill Valley, United States
When was Autodesk founded?
Autodesk was founded in 1982 in Mill Valley, United States by John Walker, Dan Drake and Mike Ford, making it 44 years old.
- Founded
- 1982
- Founding place
- Mill Valley, United States
- Founders
- John Walker, Dan Drake and Mike Ford
- Headquarters today
- San Francisco, California
- Milestones documented
- 16 (1982–2026)
- Current CEO
- Andrew Anagnost
- Acquisitions
- 8
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1982 | Autodesk founded and AutoCAD launched |
| 1985 | Initial public offering on Nasdaq |
| 1986 | John Walker hands the chief executive role to Alvar Green |
| 1989 | Sales pass $100 million |
| 1992 | Carol Bartz hired as chairman, president and chief executive |
| 2002 | Revit Technology Corporation acquired for $133 million |
| 2006 | Carl Bass promoted to chief executive and Alias acquired |
| 2016 | Perpetual licenses withdrawn from core products |
| 2017 | Andrew Anagnost becomes president and chief executive |
| 2018 | PlanGrid and BuildingConnected bought for $1.15 billion |
| 2021 | Innovyze acquired for $1 billion |
| 2023 | Autodesk AI announced at Autodesk University |
| 2025 | Restructuring and a cooperation agreement with Starboard Value |
| 2026 | Fiscal 2026 revenue of $7.21 billion |
| 2026 | MaintainX agreed for about $3.6 billion |
| 2026 | Products grouped into three industry clouds with agentic AI |
- Where was Autodesk founded?
- Autodesk was founded in Mill Valley, United States in 1982. wikidata.org
- Who founded Autodesk?
- Autodesk was founded by John Walker, Dan Drake and Mike Ford.
- When did Autodesk start?
- Autodesk was founded in 1982.
- How old is Autodesk?
- Autodesk is 44 years old as of 2026.
Founding Story
In 1982, a programmer named John Walker convinced 15 of his friends to pool $59,000 to start a software company in Marin County, California. They didn't really know what to build, so they developed several different programs and took them to a computer fair. One of the programs, a drafting tool called MicroCAD (later renamed AutoCAD), drew large crowds because it promised to automate the highly tedious job of drawing blueprints by hand. Realizing they had a large hit, they abandoned the other projects and bet the entire company on AutoCAD.
Founders
John Walker
Autodesk was founded in January 1982 by John Walker with Dan Drake and 14 other programmers, who pooled about $59,000 of their own money and incorporated the company in California on April 26, 1982. There was no single product plan. The founders listed several programs, from a desktop organizer to a filing system, and intended to find out which would sell. Walker acquired Interact, a drafting program Michael Riddle had written in 1979 for CP/M and early 16-bit machines, in exchange for royalties; it was rewritten and renamed AutoCAD. Mainframe and minicomputer CAD seats cost far more than a personal computer, so pricing AutoCAD at about $1,000 opened drafting work to small architecture and engineering firms. AutoCAD drew the crowds at Comdex in Las Vegas in November 1982 while the company's text editor drew none, which settled the product question, and it went on sale in December 1982 and earned $1.4 million in its first year. Walker ran the company as a decentralized group of programmers and circulated internal memos and business plans to all the founders, a record he later published as The Autodesk File. Autodesk became a public company in 1985 without loans or outside investors; Walker said it had been profitable from its first month. He handed the chief executive role to Alvar Green in November 1986 to return to programming and left Autodesk in 1994. John Walker was born in 1949 in Baltimore.
Dan Drake
Dan Drake is a software engineer and Autodesk co-founder, named alongside John Walker in the company's founding records. The two had worked together at Marinchip Systems building early microcomputer systems before Walker proposed the venture that became Autodesk in January 1982. Drake was among the first programmers to commit money and time to it, and he hosted the first founders' meeting at his house in Oakland after the 1985 public offering. His work was on the software itself during the years when AutoCAD went from an experimental drafting tool to the product the company bet everything on. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Mike Ford
Mike Ford was one of Autodesk's 16 original co-founders. While John Walker and Dan Drake worked on AutoCAD itself, Ford worked on marketing and sales, including the dealer network that distributed the product, and on tracking Autodesk's position against other microcomputer software companies. John Walker's Information Letter of July 1985, written for the first founders' meeting after the public offering, credits Ford's analysis of the SoftLetter 100 rankings for the company's assessment that it had reached roughly seventh place in microcomputer software, against a founding goal of the top five. (Exact birth year remains publicly undisclosed).
Key Milestones
Autodesk founded and AutoCAD launched
John Walker, Dan Drake and 14 other programmers pooled about $59,000 and incorporated Autodesk in California on April 26, 1982. AutoCAD drew the crowds at the Comdex show in Las Vegas that November, went on sale in December 1982 and earned $1.4 million in its first year.
Source: server.fourmilab.chInitial public offering on Nasdaq
Autodesk became a public company in 1985 under the ticker ADSK. Walker wrote at the first founders' meeting afterwards that the group had committed its own money in January 1982 and reached the public markets three years later without outside investors.
Source: server.fourmilab.chJohn Walker hands the chief executive role to Alvar Green
Alvar J. Green, who had joined Autodesk as chief financial officer in 1984, succeeded co-founder John Walker as president and chief executive in November 1986. Walker returned to writing code and stayed at the company until 1994.
Source: server.fourmilab.chSales pass $100 million
Autodesk's sales passed $100 million in 1989. AutoCAD Release 2.1, shipped in 1986 with the AutoLISP interpreter, had allowed outside developers to build industry-specific add-ons, which widened the product's market well beyond general drafting.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCarol Bartz hired as chairman, president and chief executive
Autodesk ended a six-month search in April 1992 by hiring Carol Bartz from Sun Microsystems. She stopped the company's diversification outside computer-aided design and took revenue from $285 million to $952 million by fiscal 2004.
Source: server.fourmilab.chRevit Technology Corporation acquired for $133 million
Autodesk bought Massachusetts-based Revit Technology Corporation in February 2002 for $133 million, adding the parametric building information modeling product that grew into its largest product family. It bought CAiCE Software the same year and shipped it as Civil 3D in 2003.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCarl Bass promoted to chief executive and Alias acquired
Carl Bass, who had joined Autodesk through its 1993 purchase of Ithaca Software, was promoted to president and chief executive in 2006, with Bartz becoming the company's first executive chairman. Autodesk also closed its $182 million purchase of Alias, which brought in Maya.
Source: investors.autodesk.comPerpetual licenses withdrawn from core products
Autodesk stopped selling new perpetual licenses for its core desktop products, moving customers onto subscriptions. Reported revenue fell to $2.031 billion in fiscal 2017 with a net loss of $582 million before the subscription base began to compound.
Source: data.sec.govAndrew Anagnost becomes president and chief executive
Andrew Anagnost, who joined Autodesk in 1997, became president and chief executive in June 2017 and completed the transition to subscriptions that had begun under Carl Bass.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPlanGrid and BuildingConnected bought for $1.15 billion
Autodesk completed its $875 million purchase of the construction field software PlanGrid on December 20, 2018 and agreed the same week to pay $275 million for the bid-management platform BuildingConnected, spending $1.15 billion to move from designing buildings into managing their construction.
Source: investors.autodesk.comInnovyze acquired for $1 billion
Autodesk paid $1 billion for Innovyze, which models water and wastewater networks, extending its infrastructure products from design into the operation of municipal water systems.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAutodesk AI announced at Autodesk University
On November 13, 2023 in Las Vegas, Autodesk announced Autodesk AI, machine learning features built into its products to automate repetitive work, analyze project data and support design exploration.
Source: investors.autodesk.comRestructuring and a cooperation agreement with Starboard Value
Autodesk cut about 1,350 roles in early 2025. On April 24, 2025 it agreed to add Jeff Epstein and Christie Simons to its board under a cooperation agreement with Starboard Value, ending the campaign the activist investor had run since June 2024.
Source: adsknews.autodesk.comFiscal 2026 revenue of $7.21 billion
Autodesk reported revenue of $7.206 billion for the year to January 31, 2026, up 18 percent, with net income of $1.124 billion, free cash flow of $2.409 billion, up 54 percent, and remaining performance obligations of $8.30 billion. It also took $216 million of restructuring and exit costs during the year.
Source: adsknews.autodesk.comMaintainX agreed for about $3.6 billion
On May 28, 2026 Autodesk agreed to acquire MaintainX, a maintenance and operations software company, in an all-cash deal valued at about $3.6 billion, its largest acquisition. MaintainX expected annual recurring revenue above $135 million in 2026.
Source: adsknews.autodesk.comProducts grouped into three industry clouds with agentic AI
At Autodesk University on September 15, 2026 Autodesk previewed agentic AI across three industry clouds: Autodesk Forma for architecture, engineering and construction, Autodesk Fusion for design and manufacturing, and Autodesk Flow for media and entertainment.
Source: adsknews.autodesk.comMajor Acquisitions
MaintainX
2026To move Autodesk past design and construction into maintenance and operations, the stage after a building or asset is handed over, and to feed operating data back into its industry clouds.
Innovyze
2021To add modeling and simulation for water and wastewater infrastructure, extending Autodesk's civil products from design of networks into their day-to-day operation.
Spacemaker
2020To acquire AI-driven generative site planning, which produces and scores site layouts against constraints such as zoning, sunlight, wind and noise.
BuildingConnected
2018To add bid management and subcontractor risk analysis, the preconstruction stage between design and work on site.
PlanGrid
2018To acquire mobile-first construction field software so that crews on site could reach current drawings, mark up plans and raise requests for information from a tablet.
Delcam
2014To buy computer-aided manufacturing software and move Autodesk further into machining, inspection and tooling, where it competed against Siemens and Dassault Systemes.
Alias
2006To acquire 3D graphics technology for automotive styling and digital content creation, including Maya and the FBX interchange format.
Revit Technology Corporation
2002To buy parametric building modeling technology, so that a change to one element of a building model would update the drawings, schedules and quantities derived from it.
Keep researching Autodesk
Autodesk Company History FAQ
What were the major milestones in Autodesk's founding and early PC CAD era from 1982 to 1992?
Founded in 1982 by John Walker, Autodesk launched AutoCAD at COMDEX in 1982, went public on the NASDAQ in 1985, and surpassed $100 million in revenue in 1989 as AutoCAD became the global drafting standard.
How did Carol Bartz transform Autodesk into a diversified 3D software leader from 1992 to 2006?
Hired as chief executive in April 1992, Carol Bartz ended Autodesk's diversification outside computer-aided design, launched the internally developed Inventor in 1999, and acquired Discreet Logic for about $520 million in stock and Revit Technology Corporation for $133 million in 2002, taking revenue past $1.5 billion by fiscal 2006.
When did Autodesk introduce cloud-native manufacturing with Fusion 360?
In 2013, under then-chief executive Carl Bass, Autodesk launched Fusion 360, a cloud-connected platform combining 3D CAD, CAM and CAE with parametric modeling, generative design and team collaboration in a browser. It is now sold as Autodesk Fusion.
How did Autodesk execute its historic transition to a 100% SaaS subscription model?
Autodesk stopped selling new perpetual licenses for core desktop products in 2016 and moved customers to named-user subscriptions and enterprise agreements. Reported revenue fell to $2.03 billion in fiscal 2017 before compounding to $7.21 billion in fiscal 2026 at a 38 percent non-GAAP operating margin.
How did the 2018 mega-acquisitions of PlanGrid and BuildingConnected launch Autodesk Construction Cloud?
Autodesk spent $1.15 billion in a month at the end of 2018, completing the $875 million purchase of PlanGrid on December 20 and agreeing to pay $275 million for BuildingConnected, assembling the field and preconstruction pieces it launched as the Autodesk Construction Cloud in 2019.
Which major stock indices include Autodesk?
Autodesk trades on Nasdaq under the ticker ADSK and is a component of both the Nasdaq-100 and the S&P 500. Its market capitalization was $43.68 billion on September 30, 2026, down from $62.75 billion at the end of 2025.
When did Autodesk launch Autodesk AI across its software ecosystem?
On November 13, 2023 at Autodesk University in Las Vegas, Autodesk announced Autodesk AI, machine learning built into its products. At Autodesk University in September 2026 it previewed agentic AI across Forma for architecture, Fusion for manufacturing and Flow for media and entertainment.
What are Autodesk's priorities for fiscal 2027?
Autodesk has guided fiscal 2027 to revenue of $8.10 billion to $8.17 billion, a non-GAAP operating margin of 38.5 to 39 percent and free cash flow of $2.70 billion to $2.80 billion, while integrating MaintainX and operationalizing its sales and marketing optimization plan.
When was Autodesk founded?
Autodesk was founded in 1982 by John Walker and a group of 15 other co-founders in Mill Valley, California to build software for early personal computers.
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