They basically went from subcontractors for Dell and the like, to almost completely replacing Dell and the line by moving up in the chain until Dell had very little value left to add.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar_Image_Computer
And then they wanted to sell software:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixar_RenderMan
And then they ended up making movies! This is described in Ed Catmull's book and I think there's a documentary on Netflix too.
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I also think it's interesting that George Lucas started out as a special effects guy and then he made Star Wars. So the effects really do help the storytelling.
They started with the OS, branched to languages, added Office (against much better competitors), started to control the browser and then antitrust happened.