History of Apple and Steve Jobs, from the Garage to His Return as CEO

A garage in Los Altos

Apple Computer Company starts on April 1, 1976, as a partnership between three people, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne. Wozniak builds the first circuit board, the Apple I, while Jobs handles selling it. On January 3, 1977, the partnership becomes Apple Computer, Inc.; a few months later, on April 16, 1977, the Apple II debuts, with color graphics and eight expansion slots, a leap over the personal computers already on the market (for that broader context, see also the history of computers).

The forgotten third founder

Wayne receives a 10% stake at the founding, with Jobs and Wozniak splitting the rest, 45% each. Twelve days after signing, though, Wayne sells his share for $800, later collecting another $1,500 to give up any future claim on the company. His biggest worry wasn’t a lack of faith in the project but personal liability for the young company’s debts, Apple had just taken out a $15,000 loan to cover its first big contract, and Wayne didn’t want to be on the hook if things went wrong.

Real-world example: that 10% stake, sold for $800 in 1976, was worth, according to a 2026 estimate, $75 billion to $360 billion, the effect of decades of growth in stocks and financial markets.

Lisa, Macintosh and the ouster

In January 1983 Apple unveils the Lisa, among the first personal computers built for a mass market with a graphical interface; on January 24, 1984, the Macintosh follows, bringing graphical computing to a much wider audience. Jobs leads that team, and his relationship with John Sculley, the executive Apple had hired as CEO in 1983, keeps deteriorating. In spring 1985 the board moves Jobs out of his operational roles; on September 17, 1985, Jobs formally resigns from Apple.

The decade outside Apple, NeXT

Jobs leaves Apple and immediately founds NeXT, together with several veterans of the Macintosh and Lisa teams. The company struggles for years, between 1991 and 1993 it racks up annual losses of $40 million to $66 million, and only turns a profit in 1994, with net income of just $1.03 million. In the fourth quarter of 1992 NeXT stops making physical computers altogether and becomes a software-only company, porting its NEXTSTEP operating system to Intel processors; in 1995 it renames itself NeXT Software, Inc. In March 1996 it ships WebObjects, a tool for building web and intranet applications that brings in a large share of the company’s software revenue. Years later NEXTSTEP would become the technical foundation of macOS, a link the history of Apple’s operating systems traces beyond the original Macintosh.

The decade outside Apple, Pixar

In 1986 Jobs pays Lucasfilm $5 million for its computer graphics division and puts in another $5 million of his own, taking a 70% stake in what becomes Pixar. For years Pixar generates no profit; by late 1994 Jobs is covering employee payroll himself, with personal checks. On November 29, 1995, the night before Thanksgiving, Toy Story opens in theaters, the first feature-length computer-animated film, earning $29 million on its opening weekend. Days later Pixar goes public, its stock closing the first day of trading at $39, well above the initial range of $12 to $14, and Jobs’s 80% stake is suddenly worth over a billion dollars.

The timeline, at a glance

Year	Event
1976	Apple is founded
1977	Apple II
1985	Jobs leaves Apple, founds NeXT
1986	Jobs buys the future Pixar
1995	Toy Story and Pixar’s IPO
1997	Apple acquires NeXT, Jobs returns
1998	iMac
2001	iPod
2006	Pixar sold to Disney
2007	iPhone
2011	Jobs dies

The return to Apple

By late 1996 Apple is negotiating to buy NeXT; the announcement comes on December 20, 1996, and the deal closes in the following months for $429 million in cash plus 1.5 million Apple shares. Apple’s CEO at the time, Gil Amelio, puts it bluntly, “I’m not just buying software, I’m buying Steve.” Jobs first returns as an informal adviser, without a real contract, since he is still closely involved with Pixar. Amelio leaves the company in July 1997; in the months that follow, Jobs becomes interim CEO.

Microsoft bails out Apple

On August 6, 1997, at the Macworld Expo in Boston, Apple announces a deal with its longtime rival, Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple stock, commits to keep developing Office for Mac for five years, and the two companies cross-license their patents, ending ongoing lawsuits. Apple agrees to make Internet Explorer the default browser on the Mac. In absolute terms $150 million is a modest sum for a company still holding $1.2 billion in cash, the value of the deal is mostly strategic. Bill Gates’s face appears on the screen behind Jobs via video link, drawing boos from part of the crowd, an anecdote that became iconic and was recounted by several independent sources at the time. It also signals how much the balance of power between the two companies had shifted (for the broader comparison, see Windows, macOS and Linux).

iMac, iPod, iPhone

On May 6, 1998, Apple unveils the iMac, a 233 MHz G3 processor, a 15-inch screen, a $1,299 price tag, and a curved, translucent Bondi Blue design from Jony Ive’s first major project after being named head of industrial design in 1997. At the launch Jobs describes it as built for what people say they want most from a computer, “to get on the internet, simply and fast,” a goal tied to the broader spread of the internet at the time. The iMac becomes the best-selling computer of the 1998 holiday season.

In October 2001 the iPod arrives, an MP3 player with a 5-gigabyte drive holding up to 1,000 songs, priced at $399 and available starting November 10. On June 29, 2007, the iPhone debuts, with a multitouch interface that redefines the mobile phone.

The final years

Jobs leads Apple until shortly before his death, on October 5, 2011, following a battle with pancreatic cancer. In 2006 Disney buys Pixar for about $7.4 billion in stock, making Jobs Disney’s largest individual shareholder, with a 7% stake.