Steve Jobs' first boss turned down $50,000 Apple offer now worth nearly $1 trillion

The U.S. tech giant is now worth $3.1 trillion, with more than one billion iPhones in use and over 100 million Mac users, and Bushnell’s stake would be valued at $1 trillion, according to Fortune.

In 1976, while Atari was focused on its 2600 console, Jobs and Steve Wozniak, then an engineer at HP, built the Apple I computer using borrowed Atari parts. Jobs presented the machine to Bushnell, who declined to invest, later explaining that he had no interest in home computers at the time.

"I could have owned a third of Apple computer for $50,000, and I turned it down," Bushnell told ABC News, recalling how Jobs, then his employee at electronics company Atari, sought investment in return for one-third of the newly formed Apple Computer.

Bushnell reflected that the decision did not trouble him. "I've got a wonderful family, I've got a great wife, my life is wonderful. I'm not sure that if I had been uber, uber, uber rich that I'd have had all of that," he said in a 2015 interview with ABC News.

Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. Photo from X

Bushnell, now 82, is recognized as a pioneer of the video game industry. He co-produced the world’s first coin-operated video game, Computer Space, in 1971, and later created Atari’s breakout hit Pong. During this period, he hired Jobs, who became known for "solving problems in the field," according to The Sydney Morning Herald.

Bushnell described Jobs as "very smart" but "a difficult person," adding: "Often he was the smartest person in the room, and he would tell everybody that. It's generally not a good social dynamic."

Bushnell was not the only figure to miss out on Apple’s success. Ronald Wayne, the lesser-known third cofounder, initially held 10% of the company while Jobs and Wozniak each took 45%.

Within two weeks, Wayne decided to leave the company and sold his stake for $800, later receiving $1,500 to forgo future claims. That stake would now be worth around $300 billion.

Wayne justified his decision by citing financial risks and career prospects. "Jobs and Woz didn’t have two nickels to rub together," he told Business Insider. "I, on the other hand, had a house, a car, and a bank account—which meant that I was on the hook if that thing blew up."

He emphasized that he had no regrets: "Because I made the best decision with the information available to me at the time. My contribution was not so great that I felt I have been [cheated] in any way."