History of Apple from a 1976 start-up to a $5 trillion company

How Apple began

Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne founded Apple on 1 April 1976 in Los Altos, California 1. Wayne sold his share back to Jobs and Wozniak for $800 twelve days later 1. The company was incorporated in Cupertino on 3 January 1977 1. It went public on Nasdaq on 12 December 1980, selling 4.6 million shares at $22 each and raising more than $100 million 1.

Timeline

The near-collapse and the return of Jobs

Jobs was stripped of his operating duties in May 1985 and resigned that September 1. Apple went through three chief executives in the following 12 years 1. It bought NeXT, the company Jobs had started, in a deal completed on 7 February 1997, and Jobs became interim chief executive that September 1. The iMac followed in 1998 and the iPod in 2001 1.

The iPhone era

The iPhone, unveiled in January 2007, became the company's main business 1. The iPad followed in 2010 1. Cook took over as chief executive in August 2011, weeks before Jobs died 1. Under Cook, Apple added the Apple Watch, moved Macs to its own chips from 2020 and launched the Vision Pro in 2024 1.

2026: a new chief executive

On 20 April 2026 Apple said John Ternus would succeed Cook on 1 September, with Cook becoming executive chairman 2. In July 2026 Apple overtook Nvidia as the world's most valuable company 3. It first traded above $5 trillion during the day on 28 July 2026 4 and was worth $5.03 trillion on 30 October 2026 6.