Steve Wozniak Net Worth 2024: Jobs Made Billions, Why Not Woz?

Steve Wozniak is a grand figure in the tech world. As the co-founder of Apple, he’s worked side-by-side with Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. Still, Steve Wozniak’s net worth in 2024 is estimated at only $140 million, a far cry from the billions that Jobs had when he passed.

Why, you ask?

It turns out that ‘Woz’ has donated the bulk of his fortune to charity and invested in several companies over the years. Today, he sustains himself through speaking engagement fees and the returns on some of his investments.

If you want to know how Steve Wozniak, the great philanthropist and tech genius, attained such incredible success and made his millions keep reading this article.

Steve Wozniak’s Net Worth Breakdown:

Most of Steve Wozniak’s net worth comes from his investment portfolio.

The tech genius has invested in different companies, as well as real estate, cryptocurrency, cars, and stocks. Although a significant portion of this data remains undisclosed to the public, we did manage to uncover multiple key details to shed some light on the sources contributing to Wozniak’s net worth.

5 Interesting Facts about Steve Wozniak

1. Wozniak deliberately avoids investing and keeps his distance from financial matters, believing that money can negatively influence personal values​.
2. He co-founded Wheels of Zeus (WoZ), a company that developed wireless GPS technology for personal use​.
3. Wozniak gave away millions of dollars in Apple shares to early employees, a gesture that Steve Jobs disagreed with.
4. He survived a plane crash in 1981, which led to a temporary leave from Apple.
5. Despite leaving Apple, Woz still officially earns $50 a week from the company​.

Latest News & Updates

Wozniak has recently won a significant court case against YouTube over a Bitcoin scam involving doctored videos that used his likeness without permission.

The court ruled that YouTube may not be immune from liability for such scams, marking a notable legal precedent for how platforms handle user-generated content

Steve Wozniak’s Early Life

Steve Gary Wozniak was born on August 11, 1950, in San Jose California. His birth certificate listed him as “Stephan Gary Wozniak”, but Margaret Louise Wozniak, his mother, decided that he should go by Steve instead.

Wozniak’s father, Francis Jacob Wozniak, was an engineer who worked at Lockheed Corporation. The couple had three children: Steve, Leslie Wozniak, and Mark Wozniak.

After graduating from Homestead High School, Steve went on to attend the University of Colorado at Boulder.

However, Steve Wozniak didn’t graduate from the University of Colorado. In fact, he only spent a year there. He was expelled from school because he hacked the school’s computer systems and sent out prank messages.

After the expulsion in 1969, Wozniak returned to the San Francisco Bay Area and re-enrolled at De Anza College in Cupertino.

Two years after he enrolled, he left De Anza College and transferred to the University of California in Berkley.

It was this time when Steve Wozniak designed his first computer with Bill Fernandez, marking the beginning of a tremendously promising career for the young man.

However, a reporter for a local newspaper stepped on the power supply cable and the computer blew up soon after it was built.

In 1971, Steve Wozniak decided to drop out of UC Berkeley, foregoing the completion of his degree.

Interestingly, it was Bill Fernandez who introduced Wozniak to Steve Jobs, despite the fact that both had attended Homestead High School, albeit in different grades.

Wozniak once explained:

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’.

Steve Wozniak Net Worth: From the Creation of the First Personal Computer to Today

When he dropped out of Berkley, Steve Wozniak started working at Hewlett-Packard (HP), building calculators for the company. This is where he met Steve Jobs through his friend Fernandez.

Although Jobs had a brief stint at HP in 1971, the duo only began collaborating after.

Wozniak started building blue boxes inspired by “Secrets of the Little Blue Box”, an article he had read at the time. He designed them to enable people to make long-distance phone calls without paying any fees.

Jobs helped Wozniak to sell the product and they were able to sell 200 blue box products at $150 apiece, raking in a nice profit from the endeavor.

It wasn’t until three years later that Jobs started working at Atari, a California-based arcade game company. His job was to develop a circuit board for a video game called Breakout, for which he would earn $100 per chip that he eliminated in the machine.

Given Jobs’ limited knowledge of circuit board design, he sought assistance from Wozniak, proposing a profit-sharing arrangement for the project. Wozniak’s expertise ultimately led to a 50% reduction in the number of chips.

Apple I

In 1975, Wozniak started developing Apple, the project that would make him famous. He initially designed it to impress members of his computer club. He was a member of the Homebrew Computer Club alongside local hobbyists who shared a passion for technology and computing.

The Apple I design was excellent and Steve Jobs didn’t hide his excitement about it. Seeing his friend’s creation, he convinced Steve Wozniak to open a company together.

However, Woz is known to be a very transparent man, something he proved when he offered HP to buy his Apple technology. He didn’t feel that it was fair to use a technology that he formed while working at the company.

HP made a major mistake at this point – they said no to the technology. When they declined, Jobs and Woz created their own company thanks to the financing of Ronald Wayne, Jobs’ coworker at Atari.

Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs sold their assets to fund the first circuit board batch for Apple. Wozniak sold his HP calculator and Jobs sold his car, a Volkswagen Van.

Ronald Wayne invested startup capital in exchange for 10% of the company. However, he is considered one of the unluckiest men in tech because he sold his 10% stake back to Wozniak and Jobs twelve days after the company was launched – for just $800!

If he still held his entire stake today he would be the richest person in the world, worth about $295 billion.

Reportedly, the name “Apple” came about when Steve Jobs shared a tale with Wozniak about his experiences working in an apple orchard during his time in Oregon.

When the two created the company, they presented it to the Homebrew Computer Club. One of the club’s members. Paul Terrell, was impressed by the design and functions of Apple I. He ordered 50 units of the technology worth $500 each to sell in his new computer shop in Mountain View, California.

He didn’t only want the printed circuit boards – instead insisting that he get the entire assembled computer to sell in his store.

At the time, Steve Wozniak was assembling the computers in Jobs’ bedroom, followed by the work they did in his home’s garage. His apartment was completely filled with electronic devices, too.

That same year, the Apple I sold for $666.66 apiece. They assembled 200 prototypes and sold 175 of them at this price.

Even after their initial success with the Apple project, Steve Wozniak remained working at HP until 1976. When Steve Wozniak finally left HP, he focused all of his efforts into Apple and became its vice president.

Apple II

In 1974, Woz started working on a new series, the Apple II. It was unveiled during the West Coast Computer Faire in April 1977 and was almost immediately a great success. By 1980, Apple was already raking in millions of dollars. The Apple II was so successful for good reason as it was the first personal computer that displayed color graphics, and the first with an in-built Basic programming language.

In 1976, two years after the development of Apple II, the revenue of the company was $175,000. Fast forward a year, and this number grew to $2.7 million.

When they had made $117 million in sales, Wozniak and Jobs took Apple public. At the time, Steve Wozniak owned 4 million Apple in shares, or 7% of the company.

While at this time his shares were worth $22 each, equaling $85 million in total, they are worth much more today. However, he has sold a majority of his holdings in the company and only has about $15 million in Apple shares today.

By the end of the decade, Steve Wozniak’s net worth was growing at an astonishing pace and exceeded $150 million. It  soon fell dramatically, however, as Wozniak donated much of his riches to good causes.

In addition to Apple I and Apple II, Steve Wozniak also designed the Disk II floppy disk drive as a replacement for cassette tape storage for Apple II.

Leaving Apple

In February 1981, Wozniak and his then-fiancée Candice Clark were involved in a plane crash. Wozniak survived but suffered temporary memory loss and retrograde amnesia, among other injuries. His recovery process was lengthy and he couldn’t work for a long period.

He initially left Apple temporarily in 1981 and re-enrolled in UC Berkley to complete his degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. He returned to Apple three years later but left once again in 1985.

He retained a small number of his shares after leaving the company in 1985 and sold the rest. Even so, he never officially left Apple, so he’s still listed as one of its employees and receives a weekly salary of $50, plus money for his speaking engagements.

Why Didn’t Steve Wozniak Make Billions from Apple?

Let’s make a comparison. Steve Jobs was worth over $10 billion when he died in 2011, most of it from his shares and earnings in Apple, as well as his stake at Disney. In comparison, Steve Wozniak’s net worth today is estimated around $140 million.

There are 2 main reasons for this. One is that he left Apple in 1985, decades before Steve Jobs retired from the company. The second is that Steve Wozniak seems to simply be disinterested in money. Even in 1980, he offered a huge portion of his stocks to employees at Apple and ended up giving them a whopping $10 million worth of his stocks.

Steve Wozniak after Apple

After he left Apple, Steve Wozniak created a new business on his own called CL 9 in 1985. He used this venture to develop the first universal remote control and put it on the market two years later. The programmable remote was called “CORE”.

At about this time, he was teaching computer science at elementary schools, following his passion for educating the youth. He also financially supported schools through Unuson.

In 2001, Steve Wozniak founded a new company called Wheels of Zeus or WOZ. The idea behind this venture was to design GPS technology to be used without wires. The wireless GPS technology was supposed to “help everyday people find everyday things much more easily”.

Wheels of Zeus didn’t last long. It shut down after five years, which prompted Steve Wozniak to open yet another company.

He founded a holding company named Acquicor Technology. This company would buy other tech firms and develop them.

Between 2009 and 2014, Steve Wozniak worked as the Chief Scientist of Fusion-io. He was also part of the board of directors at Danger and co-founded Silicon Valley Comic Con (SVCC) alongside Rick White.

Steve Wozniak’s Current Income Sources

While he still has $15 million worth in Apple stocks today, Steve Wozniak donates a lot of his money and lives off other ventures and activities.

For starters, he makes quite a bit of money from his speaking engagements. He has spoken on a variety of topics such as Apple, technology advancements, the future of technology, business, and education.

He charges $50,000 to $100,000 per speaking engagement.

In 2006, Woz co-authored a book with the journalist Gina Smith called “iWoz: Computer Geek to Cult Icon: How I Invented the Personal Computer, Co-Founded Apple, and Had Fun Doing It”.

The book is a memoir that speaks of the life of the American electronics engineer and Apple co-founder.

Finally, Steve Wozniak’s wealth also comes from his versatile financial portfolio and investments in real estate, bonds, stocks, and other companies.

Philanthropic Work

In October 2017, Wozniak established Woz U, a company that offers technology services to aid the education of students and employees. He also launched Efforce in 2020, a marketplace that funds projects that are good for the environment.

In 2021, Woz started a company called Privateer Space with Alex Fielding which works on the problem of space debris. His Un.U.Son or “Unite Us In Song” organization was created to support his educational projects.

He’s also a major donor to several organizations including:

• Silicon Valley Ballet
• Tech Museum
• Children’s Discovery Museum of San Jose

By November 2019, Steve Wozniak had given most of his wealth to charity. He said the following:

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

Awards and Accomplishments

Steve Wozniak has won several awards over the years, including:

• 1979: Won the National Medal of Technology along with Jobs, awarded by President Jimmy Carter for their work in founding the company and developing Apple II.
• 1985: Won the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award for his contributions to the development of the Apple computer.
• 2000: Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
• 2001: Won the Heinz Award for Technology.
• 2014: Won the Hoover Medal for his philanthropic activities and service to humanity.
• 2015: Won Lifetime Achievement Award at the 20th Anniversary Hemp Celebration.
• 2019: Inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame for contributions to the development of the Apple computer.

Other Investments of Steve Wozniak

Steve Wozniak left Apple but he didn’t retire from the business world. This was the beginning of a continuously successful career that included the formation of many companies, as we discussed, as well as a valuable investment portfolio.

Today, Wozniak’s portfolio includes a mixture of assets in real estate, bonds, stocks, cars, and more.

Real Estate

In 2006, Steve Wozniak bought a $6.9 million, 7,500-square-foot mansion in Los Gatos. He sold the property in 2015 for $3.8 million, less than he paid the year before.

He now lives in a 12,200-square-foot luxury home in San Jose, California. He bought this property for $19 million.

Car Collection

Steve Wozniak has had several luxury vehicles over the years. It is not known what he still owns today. Some of the cars in his collection have been known to be:

• Bugatti Divo worth over $7 million
• Rolls-Royce Cullinan worth $1 million
• Alfa Romeo Giulia
• Lexus GX
• Ferrari Portofino

Investments in Stocks

Part of Wozniak’s wealth is invested in stock markets, also earning him an income each year. He owns stocks in over 10 companies, including:

• Ford Motors
• Morgan Stanley
• Hewlett Packard
• Citigroup
• Boeing
• IBM
• Walt Disney
• Nike
• Walmart
• Boeing

The extent of his ownership in these companies remains undisclosed to the public.

Crypto Investments

Finally, Steve Wozniak is a great proponent of crypto, especially Bitcoin. He’s hyped the digital coin for many years, but his exact investment in it is not public information. According to Steve Wozniak

The government can just create new dollars, and borrow and borrow. You never have it fixed. Bitcoin was the goal. It’s the digital equivalent of Gold. Bitcoin is the most amazing mathematical miracle.

What Can We Learn From Steve Wozniak’s Success?

Steve Wozniak has amassed a fortune over the years and yet, he’s only worth a fraction of its peak today. His story is one for the ages. Wozniak is a brilliant person and one of the greatest minds in the world of technology, but he simply isn’t focused on making money.

Instead, he is focused on designing quality products and helping others, which is why he donated most of his fortune to charities and people in need.

His life should impart an incredibly value lesson on us – that it’s not at all about being rich. While Steve Wozniak lives a luxurious life, he’s living proof that accumulating billions is not the marker of a good life – or of success.

Wozniak’s story highlights how important it is to focus on your passion and be true to who you are.

Just imagine – most people today don’t even know that he’s the designer of Apple! Steve Jobs has been the face of Apple for so long, yet it was Steve Wozniak who was the mastermind of the brand and its tech.