A lot is said about Steve Jobs’s fortune, his shares, Pixar, and everything that came afterward. But there was one exact moment when Steve Jobs truly became a millionaire. One specific day. Just a few hours. And all thanks to a name that, even back then, sparked genuine fascination on Wall Street: Apple.
Apple’s IPO changed everything
For quite some time, expectations surrounding Apple’s IPO had been enormous. The company was already seen as a young promise capable of taking personal computing to another level, so there was a huge amount of media and financial attention focused on it.
So, when the company went public on December 12, 1980, Cupertino became the center of attention. The shares were expected to debut at 14 dollars, but they were ultimately launched at 22 dollars per share. And Apple put no fewer than 4.6 million shares into circulation.
What happened? Everything sold out within minutes. Throughout the day, the price kept rising until it closed at 29 dollars per share. And the result was spectacular: Apple ended that day with a valuation of 1.778 billion dollars, in the biggest technology IPO of its time and the largest since Ford’s in 1956.
And in the middle of all that euphoria, Steve Jobs, just 25 years old (who did not like one of Microsoft’s best apps), ended the day with a net worth of 217 million dollars. So, in less than eight hours, Apple’s co-founder became part of the select group of America’s great millionaires.
Steve Jobs became a millionaire overnight, and he was not the only one
Inside Apple, the atmosphere was one of real celebration. There was champagne, excitement, and that inexplicable feeling of living through a historic moment right at the heart of the action. Mike Scott, Apple’s CEO at the time, also walked away with a fortune of 95.5 million dollars. Mike Markkula, one of the company’s biggest supporters in its early days, received 203 million. And Steve Wozniak ended that day with 116 million.
That day, more than 40 Apple employees, out of the company’s roughly 1000 employees at the time, became millionaires instantly. Their lives changed completely in a single day. And all thanks to that young company whose products were winning the public over.
But that IPO did not just make Steve Jobs and several employees millionaires, it also cemented Apple as a company destined to do great things. It had stopped being a brilliant startup and had become a giant with real weight in the technology market. That day truly marked a turning point in Apple’s history and in Jobs’s life.
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