What is Steve Wozniak's net worth and salary?
Steve Wozniak is an American computer engineer who has a net worth of $10 million. Steve Wozniak is probably most famous for being one of the three co-founders of Apple. He co-founded the company on April 1, 1976 with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne in Cupertino, California. Wozniak designed and built both the Apple I and Apple II computers. Though the Apple I was moderately successful, it was the Apple II that ultimately put Apple, Inc. on the map. Wozniak left the company briefly in the early 80s after an accident and then returned to work as a regular employee. He left for good in 1987, though he is still listed as an employee and receives a yearly stipend. He has gone on to launch various successful ventures, both commercial and philanthropic. He has also made television appearances on such shows as "Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List" and "Code Monkeys," and he competed on the eighth season of "Dancing with the Stars."
Wealth Donations
According to an SEC filing, at his absolute peak in 1980, when the company went public, Steve Wozniak owned 7.9% of Apple. At the company's IPO, its market cap was $1.8 billion. That meant Steve's paper net worth on that day was $142 million. When Apple's market cap has been at $3 trillion in recent years, a 7.9% stake would have made Woz one of, if not THE, richest person on the planet with a net worth of $237 billion. However, as you may have noticed on this page, we currently peg Steve Wozniaks' net worth to be $10 million. What gives?
If you were expecting Steve Wozniak's net worth number to be much higher, for example, $100+ million, Steve has actually given away the majority of his wealth. Not only did he give away what would have eventually hundreds of millions of dollars worth of early Apple shares to disgruntled fellow engineers in the early 1980s, but he has also contributed untold millions to charity over the last few decades.
In November 2019, Woz confirmed that he had given the "vast majority" of his net worth to charity, primarily to organizations focused on children's education. Today, he lives primarily off speaking engagement fees.
"Don't work for money – it will wear out fast, or you'll never make enough, and you will never be happy, one or the other… You have to find the intersection of doing something you're passionate about and, at the same time, something that is in the service of other people." – Steve Wozniak
In a 2018 interview, Wozniak explained his aversion to high finance and shared why he doesn't even own any stocks:
"I do not invest. I don't do that stuff. I didn't want to be near money because it could corrupt your values."
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Early Life
Steve grew up in San Jose, California, where his father worked as an engineer for the Lockheed Corporation. He attended Homestead High School, the same school as Steve Jobs. Jobs was a few years behind. For college, Woz briefly attended the University of Colorado at Boulder. He was expelled after hacking the school's computer systems to send prank messages.
Upon returning to California, he attended De Anza College and then UC Berkeley. Through a friend named Bill Hernandez, Woz met Jobs. Hernandez and Jobs were a few grades behind Woz at Homestead High. Woz would later describe his introduction to Jobs through Hernandez as follows:
"We first met in 1971 during my college years, while he was in high school. A friend said, 'You should meet Steve Jobs because he likes electronics, and he also plays pranks."
Woz soon took a job at Hewlett-Packard designing calculators and dropped out of Berkeley. Jobs also got a job at HP. This is where the duo truly bonded.
After HP, Jobs was hired by video game maker Atari, where company founder Nolan Bushnell offered a $100 bounty for each chip that was eliminated in a game called Breakout. With little knowledge of circuit board designs, Jobs brought the challenge to Woz and offered him half of the bounty they received. Woz ended up removing 50 chips from the game. There would later be some controversy over how forthright Jobs was with Woz about the money he ended up receiving from Bushnell. Jobs apparently told Woz that Bushnell only gave him $700 when, in fact, he had been paid $5,000.
Apple
In 1975, Wozniak began designing what would become the Apple 1 computer. Impressed by what he was seeing, Jobs prodded Woz to launch a company together. Woz felt guilty about creating the Apple 1 while working at HP, so he insisted that HP be given the opportunity to buy the technology. When HP declined, Woz and Jobs set out to create their own company.
For financing, Jobs reached out to a co-worker at Atari named Ronald Wayne. In exchange for 10% of the company, Ronald provided some startup capital, drew up the partnership documents, wrote the very first Apple 1 manual, and provided a general level of "adult supervision" for the young upstart. In what might be the worst business decision in history, just 12 days later Ronald sold his 10% stake back to Jobs and Woz for $800.
Wozniak and Jobs assembled the first prototypes of the Apple computer in Jobs' bedroom and later in Jobs' garage. Around 200 Apple 1 units were produced. All but 25 sold. They each cost $666.66.
In 1974, Woz led the team that designed and developed what would become one of the first commercially successful lines of personal computers, the Apple II series. Wozniak is credited with being the sole creator of the original Apple hardware, operating system, and circuit board designs. Wozniak's machines and inventions are credited with influencing the personal computer revolution in the 1970s.
IPO
In 1976, Apple's revenues were $175,000. In 1977, revenue grew to $2.7 million. Apple went public in 1980 after generating $117 million in sales in the prior 12 months. The public offering made over 300 employees at Apple instant millionaires. Woz and Jobs were both worth hundreds of millions of dollars on paper on the day of the IPO. As we stated earlier in this article, on the day of the IPO, Woz owned 7.9% of Apple, and at the company's $1.8 billion IPO market cap, that stake gave him a $142 million paper net worth.
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After Apple
Woz was involved in a nearly fatal plane crash in 1981 that left him with serious brain trauma. The event caused him to essentially stop working at Apple for several years, during which time he completed his degree (using a fake name) at UC Berkeley.
He returned to Apple at some point but left again by 1985. Technically, he never resigned or officially severed his relationship with Apple. To this day, Woz is listed as a current employee of Apple and receives an annual stipend of $120,000 for representing the company at public events.
Wozniak co-founded Wheels of Zeus (WoZ, also his nickname) in 2001 to create wireless GPS technology in order to help the average person on the street find everyday things more easily. Since leaving Apple, Wozniak has provided all the money, as well as a good amount of on-site technical support, for the technology program in his local school district. Un.U.Son (Unite Us In Song) is an organization Wozniak formed to support his educational and philanthropic projects.
Wozniak was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000.
In 2017, he founded Woz U, an online technical school.
In 2020, Wozniak launched the new company Efforce to help fund ecologically friendly projects. In September 2021, it was reported that Woz was starting the company Privateer Space alongside Alex Fielding to combat the problem of space debris. Their space traffic monitoring software debuted in March 2022.
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Philanthropy
Woz helped form the Electronic Frontier Foundation in 1990. He is a major donor to several museums and organizations, including the Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose, the Tech Museum, and the Silicon Valley Ballet. He provides all the funding and technical support to his local Los Gatos school district schools.
In November 2019, Woz revealed that he had given the vast majority of his wealth to charity, presumably hundreds of millions of dollars. He explained:
"I never wanted to be rich, so I gave my wealth away… I support my family by speaking. I've done well, and we can afford to live here but are not super rich. I care more about justice and equality than money."
Personal Life
Wozniak lives in Los Gatos, California. He has been married four times. He has been married to Janet Hill since 2008. He has three children from a previous marriage.
Steve Wozniak suffers from face blindness, also known as the condition prosopagnosia.
Real Estate
In 2006, Steve paid $6.9 million for a 7,500-square-foot mansion in Los Gatos, California. He listed this home for sale for the first time in 2012 for $5 million. It took three years and several price cuts before he finally accepted $3.8 million in May 2015. Here's a video tour of Steve's former Los Gatos mansion:
