Steve Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985. He sold nearly every share he owned, keeping just one share to attend meetings. With the money, he bought George Lucas's animation studio for $10 million. That studio was Pixar. Toy Story came out 10 years later. Pixar made him a billionaire first.
Apple Fired Steve Jobs. He Used the Money to Buy Pixar.
In 1985, Apple's board of directors forced Steve Jobs out of the company he had co-founded. It was one of the most dramatic exits in Silicon Valley history.
He Kept One Share
After a bitter power struggle with CEO John Sculley, Jobs sold almost his entire Apple stake - roughly 11% of the company at the time. He kept just one share, so he could keep attending annual meetings and receiving the company's reports. The sale netted him around $100 million after taxes.
He Bought Something No One Wanted
In February 1986, Jobs paid $10 million for Lucasfilm's computer graphics division - $5 million to acquire the technology rights from George Lucas, and $5 million as capital investment into the company. Lucas was happy to sell. The small team of animators and engineers had yet to make a single feature film. Jobs renamed the studio Pixar.
Nine Years of Doubt
The years after the purchase were difficult. Jobs poured his own money into Pixar to keep it alive, ultimately investing $50 million of his own funds. He considered selling the studio multiple times. The team struggled to find a sustainable business model, selling hardware and software before settling on animation.
Toy Story Changed Everything
On November 22, 1995, Pixar released Toy Story - the world's first entirely computer-animated feature film. It was a global hit. A week later, on November 29, Pixar went public on the NASDAQ. The stock was expected to open at $12-$14 per share. It closed the first day at $39, making Jobs's stake worth over $1 billion in a single trading session.
He had become a billionaire - not from Apple, and not yet from the iPhone. From a tiny animation studio that almost no one had believed in.
The Disney Sale
In 2006, Disney acquired Pixar for approximately $7.4 billion in an all-stock deal. Jobs owned about 50% of Pixar at the time. His stake was worth $3.9 billion. By then, Jobs had already been running Apple as CEO for nearly a decade. The single share he had kept for 21 years was now worth considerably more.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Why did Steve Jobs keep only one share of Apple stock?
Verified Fact
Verified 2026-06-07. 5 sources checked. Primary: Celebrity Net Worth (full-arc: one-share + 0M Pixar + billionaire-from-IPO + .4B Disney). Supporting: Yahoo Finance (one-share confirmed; 'save for one share, which gave him access to the company's annual meetings'); Wikipedia/Pixar (M rights + M capital = 0M confirmed, 49.65% Disney stake = .9B); Fortune (Pixar IPO 9 close, billionaire narrative); IPO Wizard 1995 contemporary source (confirmed 9 closing price, 29.9M/37.4M shares = ~80% Jobs stake at IPO). Claims checked: - Jobs fired 1985: CONFIRMED (multiple sources; Jobs own word per Stanford 2005) - Sold nearly all Apple shares, kept one: CONFIRMED (Yahoo Finance: 'save for one share, which gave him access to the company's annual meetings'; Celebrity Net Worth: 'kept that last share only so he could continue receiving the company's annual report') - 00M after taxes from Apple sale: CONFIRMED (Yahoo Finance/Inc) - 0M for Pixar (M rights + M capital): CONFIRMED (Wikipedia, Fortune, Celebrity Net Worth) - 0M total invested over 9 years: CONFIRMED (Wikipedia, Lawrence Levy book) - Came close to selling Pixar multiple times: CONFIRMED (Lawrence Levy book, multiple sources) - Toy Story November 22, 1995: CONFIRMED (9y9m after Feb 1986 purchase; '10 years later' is acceptable round) - Pixar IPO November 29, 1995, closed 9: CONFIRMED (IPO Wizard contemporary record; Fortune longform 9; Wikipedia 2 is outlier) - Jobs ~80% stake at IPO: CONFIRMED (IPO Wizard: 29.9M/37.4M = 79.9%) - Pixar IPO made Jobs billionaire: CONFIRMED (Fortune, Celebrity Net Worth) - Disney .4B 2006: CONFIRMED (Wikipedia, Celebrity Net Worth) - Jobs ~50% (49.65%) at Disney sale: CONFIRMED (Wikipedia) - Disney stake .9B: CONFIRMED (Wikipedia at 49.65%) - Jobs became Disney's largest individual shareholder: CONFIRMED Discrepancies resolved: - source_url updated from Fortune (did not contain one-share detail) to Celebrity Net Worth (covers full arc). - social_caption emdash corrected to regular dash (project rule). - text field aligned to social_text stripped of markdown (text/social_text parity rule). - IPO closing price 9 confirmed as correct; Wikipedia 2 is outlier. - Disney stake: .9B used (Wikipedia 49.65% is most precise); Fortune .6B and CelebrityNetWorth .7B are alternate calculation dates, noted. No fabricated details found. No reversed agency. Numeric coherence: M + M = 0M reconciles. No scheduled_posts to cancel (pre-imaging). No image_social exists.
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