In 1985, He Was Forced Out of the Company He Founded. Months Later He Bet $10 Million On A Graphics Unit He Bought From George Lucas. By 2006, That Bet Was Worth Far More Than His Apple Stock

• Jobs bought Lucasfilm's graphics unit for $10M in 1986, forming Pixar, after Apple ousted him. • Pixar's 2006 Disney stock deal made Jobs its largest shareholder, dwarfing his Apple stake at the time. • By his 2011 death, Disney and Apple holdings had converged in value as Apple's stock surged. Steve Jobs was forced out of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) in 1985 and sold nearly all his Apple stock. He then negotiated George Lucas down from $30 million to $10 million for Lucasfilm's computer graphics division, incorporating Pixar in 1986 with 70% ownership. Lucasfilm kept no equity. Jobs funded Pixar through lean years, selling its struggling hardware business in 1990 for $2 million. That bet paid off in 1995: Toy Story earned about $400 million, and Pixar's IPO, expected at $12-$14 a share, closed its first day at $39, making Jobs a billionaire on paper with 80.2% ownership. Meanwhile, Apple bought Jobs's NeXT for $429 million in 1996, and he returned as interim CEO on a $1 salary, later receiving 10 million restricted shares. In January 2006, Disney (NYSE:DIS) acquired Pixar in an all-stock deal valued at about $7.4 billion, with Jobs owning roughly 50.6% of Pixar. By 2010 he held about 138 million Disney shares (~7%), worth roughly $3.52 billion at deal pricing — far exceeding his Apple stake, estimated between $467 million and $848 million depending on share-count sources. By Jobs's death in October 2011, Bloomberg valued his Disney stake at $4.35 billion and his Apple shares at $2.05 billion — a narrower gap, as Apple's price had risen about 4.35x since 2006 versus Disney's 1.23x. Today, Apple is worth about $5.08 trillion, with fiscal Q3 revenue up 16.4% to $109.42 billion and shares up 28.33% year to date. Disney, still powered by Pixar franchises like Toy Story (over $4 billion in global box office), reported fiscal Q3 revenue of $25.25 billion, with shares roughly flat year to date. Investors are now watching Disney's fiscal Q4 report, with guidance for about 16% adjusted EPS growth in fiscal 2026.