Apple's success has generated hundreds of billions of dollars, but not many billionaires
There's just one billionaire in Apple's current leadership, who didn't make his money from Apple. But the company has produced billion-dollar fortunes for suppliers.
The word "billion" comes up a lot when it comes to Apple, whether it's the company's $873 billion market capitalization, more than $280 billion in cash on hand, or the more than $11 billion Apple reportedly spent on research and development last year.
Despite that, Apple has produced few billionaires, and no one currently in the main leadership of the company who earned billionaire status directly through their involvement with Apple. According to a Bloomberg report Tuesday Apple stands in contrast with other Silicon Valley companies, in which CEOs and other investors have achieved net worths in the billions.
Steve Jobs was a billionaire; his net worth was estimated at around $10 billion at the time of his death in 2011. But due to his departing the company and coming back, which resulted in his selling his shares and having to re-acquire them, Jobs' net worth was much lower than that of his contemporary Bill Gates. Much of Jobs' fortune came from non-Apple sources, including his cofounding of Pixar Animation Studios and its subsequent acquisiton by Disney.
Current CEO Tim Cook is not a billionaire; his net worth is estimated in the $600 million range. Art Levinson, Apple's chairman, is the only known billionaire in Apple's present leadership, although he earned most of his fortune from non-Apple business, mostly his time with Genentech. Bloomberg's Billionaires Index consists of 500 names; the only name on the list with any direct association with Apple is Laurene Powell Jobs, the entrepreneur and widow of Steve Jobs, although she has no role with the company.
Apple's wealth has always been spread around employees and suppliers more than other tech companies. None of its cofounding generation is still with the company, as Jobs is deceased, Steve Wozniak's stake is estimated in the millions rather than billions, and the third cofounder, Ronald Wayne, infamously walked away from the company for $800 in 1976. Mike Markkula, an early investor in Apple and employee number three, is said to have a net worth over $1 billion, but he left Apple in the '90s.
Apple doesn't have a Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, or Larry Ellison, a dominant executive figure who's both still in the picture and in position to demand overwhelming compensation.
Apple also hasn't spent the amount on acquisitions that would put billions in the pockets of those with significant equity in the acquired companies. Despite various reports to the contrary at the time, Apple's purchase of Beats in 2014 did not make Dr. Dre the first billionaire rapper. However, Bloomberg did speculate that some longtime Apple employees, such as Jony Ive, may hold enough equity in the company to push their net worth over a billion dollars.
The word "billion" comes up a lot when it comes to Apple, whether it's the company's $873 billion market capitalization, more than $280 billion in cash on hand, or the more than $11 billion Apple reportedly spent on research and development last year.
Despite that, Apple has produced few billionaires, and no one currently in the main leadership of the company who earned billionaire status directly through their involvement with Apple. According to a Bloomberg report Tuesday Apple stands in contrast with other Silicon Valley companies, in which CEOs and other investors have achieved net worths in the billions.
Steve Jobs was a billionaire; his net worth was estimated at around $10 billion at the time of his death in 2011. But due to his departing the company and coming back, which resulted in his selling his shares and having to re-acquire them, Jobs' net worth was much lower than that of his contemporary Bill Gates. Much of Jobs' fortune came from non-Apple sources, including his cofounding of Pixar Animation Studios and its subsequent acquisiton by Disney.
Current CEO Tim Cook is not a billionaire; his net worth is estimated in the $600 million range. Art Levinson, Apple's chairman, is the only known billionaire in Apple's present leadership, although he earned most of his fortune from non-Apple business, mostly his time with Genentech. Bloomberg's Billionaires Index consists of 500 names; the only name on the list with any direct association with Apple is Laurene Powell Jobs, the entrepreneur and widow of Steve Jobs, although she has no role with the company.
Suppliers cash in
Not mentioned in the report, are the founders and/or CEOs of several top Apple suppliers. Zhou Qunfei, founder of Lens Technology, is ranked 217th with a listed fortune of $7.3 billion. Terry You, the founder of major Apple supplier Foxconn, is at #273, with a net worth of $6.16 billion, as is Barry Lam, founder and CEO of Quanta Computer, whose $4.12 billion fortune places him 486th.Apple's wealth has always been spread around employees and suppliers more than other tech companies. None of its cofounding generation is still with the company, as Jobs is deceased, Steve Wozniak's stake is estimated in the millions rather than billions, and the third cofounder, Ronald Wayne, infamously walked away from the company for $800 in 1976. Mike Markkula, an early investor in Apple and employee number three, is said to have a net worth over $1 billion, but he left Apple in the '90s.
Apple doesn't have a Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, or Larry Ellison, a dominant executive figure who's both still in the picture and in position to demand overwhelming compensation.
Apple also hasn't spent the amount on acquisitions that would put billions in the pockets of those with significant equity in the acquired companies. Despite various reports to the contrary at the time, Apple's purchase of Beats in 2014 did not make Dr. Dre the first billionaire rapper. However, Bloomberg did speculate that some longtime Apple employees, such as Jony Ive, may hold enough equity in the company to push their net worth over a billion dollars.
Comments
People like myself, who invested in Apple after the return of Steve Jobs but before success became obvious, have done very well. I started buying Apple stock right after the release of the OS X Public Beta. Those shares split 2-1 and then 7-1 later, so 1 share then is 14 now without dividend reinvestment.
I stopped buying new shares in the low-mid $300/share range before the 7-1 split.
When I got home with the Public Beta and installed it- bugs and all- on my Mac, I knew Apple had a winning product if they kept pushing.
I’ll never be a billionaire, but there are many like me who will retire very well because we got on the train before most of the crowd. If you go to the shareholders meeting you can meet quite a few ordinary people who have done very well by betting on Apple early. I also had the good fortune to buy Amazon stock when the financial papers were constantly griping about Bezos growing the company rather than chasing profitability.
If you like what you do and get paid for it and can live a healthy and happy lifestyle, then why do you need all of that money? Why do people think they're worth Billions of dollars?
It kinda sounds to me like Apple Executives don't necessarily do this for the money, but rather they do it because they like what they do and they enjoy where they're working. They realize the big picture and aren't just out to get rich. If you're successful at Apple, you'll make the money you deserve.
I was really young back then (like early teens!)...but I wish I could have purchased shares of Apple when it was around $12-14/share. Even if it was $1000 worth back then, it would be worth a hell of a lot more today. I think around the Mac OS X era, wasn't it around $25-30/share'ish for a while?
*Professional entrepreneurs get good at the game and reach a point where they never invest their own money, but that's a luxury the little guy entrepreneurs can't afford.
I work for a Start-up in the 90's, it went public no one got big time rich, one of the 4 founders did well, not from his company stock, but he put a lot of his founder IPO money into Netscape Pre-IPO and made lots of money once they went public. Than the Company was bought out by a much larger company for $4B which was one of the largest start-up companies acquisition in the 90, and it was seen as one the 10 best acquisition in all of the 90's. Right before the acquisition we had about 800 employees and the acquisition generated 32 Millions over night all cash no stock swap, this was never heard of at the time.
One big difference today from back then, most of time when a company goes IPO, the founder are usually pushed out. The investment world did not like the fact the people who started the company are still running it once it is public. The other thing different about the company I worked for, it got its start without any VC money, we had a lucrative government contract which funded the growth in to the public sector. Because of this the founders were not pushed out by the VC, the Wall Street tried push them out. Also over 50% of the stock was held by employees, thus the reason 32 millionaires were generated. The balance of the people made 100's thousands. Do the math 50% was owned by the employees and founders and we split the $2B most of that did go to the 4 founders.
Today you have more founders running their companies, they also hold most of the share they are not sharing it with all the employees because VC do not like this nor does Wall Street. Wall Street does not like closely held companies, why, they can not force the company to do what they want.
Imagine one of these big startups generated a number of Billionaires or even 100's Millions Millionaires. You are not seeing this either these companies are not spreading the wealth among all the people who worked for the company and help it grow. I suspect that Apple has lots of people who now have net worth's well in the millions. It would not surprise me there are a few thousand employees with net worth in the millions, since apple does spread the stock around.
it would be nice if millionaires could recognize their privileges and not continue trying to acquire more and more wealth when they're already very wealthy, but the way they've been inculcated into society is usually different from the way the rest of us have been inculcated. They usually come from wealth in the first place.
Some consider their success to be purely the result of their efforts and ambition to succeed, and therefore more wealth equates to more success and validation in their minds. This is a very common attitude in the USA. It isn't just millionaires. Millionaires simply stand out more because the culture of the USA tells us to admire these people and try to emulate them.
While I'm mentioning the expectation to emulate the behavior of the very successful, and the cultural expectations around success: this culture expects the results of our efforts to be entirely left on our own shoulders, regardless of whether or not we have access to the same opportunities as the people who've "made it". People fall prey to survivorship bias a lot when they get into arguing "if I made it, you can too".
There is too much concentration of wealth today in the hands of people who produce little of real value.
"Folks with plenty o' plenty got a lock on their door.
'Fraid somebody gonna rob 'em while they out a-makin' more."