Apple's founding document is heading to auction
Exactly how many iPad Pros do you think Apple’s founding document is worth? Quite a lot, by the sound of it. The written agreement that made official the formation of Apple Computer Company — as it was initially known — in 1976 is reportedly going to be auctioned, where it’s expected to fetch up to $4 million.
As reported by Apple Insider, the British auction house Christie’s, which has a number of international salerooms, including one in New York, will feature the three-page document in an auction in early 2026. It features the signatures of Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne, as well as their respective stakes in the company that would go on to become one of the biggest in the world.
While undoubtedly an item of historical significance, the agreement that people will be bidding for was ultimately a short-lived one. By the time Apple Computer Company became Apple Computer, Inc less than a year later, Wayne had already sold his 10 percent share back to his other co-founders.
In fact, he left the company less than a fortnight after its creation, a decision he insisted he didn’t regret in a BBC interview in 2016, despite the fact that a 10 percent stake in Apple would have been worth around $60 billion at the time (and presumably quite a bit more than that now). He was paid just $1,500 to sign away of all of his remaining business interests in Apple several months later. And to rub even more salt in the wound, Wayne eventually sold his own copy of that original agreement for $500, something the former Atari employee told the BBC he did regret.
According to Apple Insider, the soon-to-be auctioned Apple agreement is valued at between $2 million and $4 million, and it will feature in the "We the People: America at 250" auction in New York on January 23. It won’t be the first time an important piece of Apple history has been sold off. Back in 2023, an unopened first-generation iPhone fetched $190,000 at an auction, which was around 300 times its original price.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/apples-founding-document-is-heading-to-auction-170547522.html?src=rss