Steven Paul Jobs was born on 24 February 1955, in San Francisco, California USA to Syrian-born Abdulfattah “John” Jandali and Swiss-American Carole Schieble, and is known worldwide as the co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. He was a man of genius and one of the most productive inventors who developed a number of technological devices. He created personal computers, iPod, iPhone, iPad and other gadgets now used all around the world.
So just how rich was Steve Jobs? It is no surprise that Jobs was one of the richest people in the world during the early 21st century, with a net worth estimated to have reached $11 billion, accumulated largely during his career at Apple Computers.
Steve Jobs Net Worth $11 Billion
Steve Jobs was adopted at birth by parents Paul Reinhold Jobs and Clara Jobs, because his mother’s family objected to the relationship with Steve’s father. Later Jobs stated that he considered the Jobs to be his real parents 100%. His mother taught him to read before school, and Steve’s father taught him to work with electronics, and as a result, Jobs became interested in technology. Steve Jobs attended Homestead High School in Cupertino, California, where he became friends with Bill Fernandez and Steve Wozniak, who were also interested in electronics. In 1969 Fernandez and Wozniak started building a computer board called “The Cream Soda Computer”, which they showed to Steve Jobs, who found the idea fascinating. Later Steve Jobs entered Reed College in Portland, however Steve’s parents had to pay for his studies, so after one semester Steve dropped out, began attending creative classes and taking courses on calligraphy. His interest in calligraphy can be seen in Apple products.
How did Steve Jobs become rich? In 1976 Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built the first personal computer in Jobs’ garage. In 1977 Jobs and Wozniak created the Apple II, and in 1980 Apple Computer became one of the leading computer companies.This was a very significant start to Steve Jobs’ net worth.
However, Steve Jobs left Apple after a power struggle in 1985, and founded NeXT, a computer platform development company specializing in the higher-education and business markets, and then in 1986, he bought the the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm from George Lucas for less than $10 million, creating Pixar, which in turn became a significant success, and increasing Steve Jobs’ net worth considerably.
Meantime Apple was struggling, and in 1996 after failing to produce its operating system the company turned to NeXT, and its platform formed the basis for the Mac OS X. Steve Jobs returned to Apple as an advisor, and took control of the company as an interim CEO. Jobs effectively brought Apple from near bankruptcy to profitability in just two years, which also helped grow his net worth.
Concurrently, Steve Jobs became a member of the board of directors in the Walt Disney Company, when Disney purchased Pixar for approximately $7 billion dollars, which deal brought Steve Jobs the biggest part of his $11 billion net worth. (In 1985 he had sold his Apple shares, which if he had retained them would have given him a net worth of around $36 billion.)
During the rest of his life, Steve Jobs made significant contributions to the on-going development of computers, mobile- and smart-phones, and to the organisation of Apple, such that the company became one of the biggest in the technology industry world-wide. In 2007, Fortune magazine named Steve the most powerful person in business, as he was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.
In his personal life, Steve Jobs married Laurene Powell-Jobs in 1990. Being one of the richest people in the world, Steve Jobs was not a big spender in comparison with other wealthy people. For instance, he enjoyed being in nature more than in luxurious hotels. On the other hand, his lifestyle was far from being ordinary. Jobs owned valuable real estate in California, a yacht and a private jet. He drove a 2008 Mercedes SL 55 AMG and a 1996 R60/2 BMW motorcycle.
Unfortunately, Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2011 at his home in Palo Alto.
