Apple Founding Contract expected to sell for Up to $4 Million at Christie's
In New York, Auction house Christie's said on Tuesday it will auction the original 1976 partnership contract that created the Apple Computer Company, valuing it in the 2 to 4 million U.S. dollar range.
Signed on April 1, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ron Wayne, the agreement locked in the split that shaped early Apple: 45% for Jobs, 45% for Wozniak, and 10% for Wayne, who drafted the paperwork himself on his IBM typewriter. The lot also includes Ron Wayne’s withdrawal documents, signed just 12 days later, when he accepted $800 USD up front and a later $1,500 USD payment to walk away from his 10% stake in a company that would become a $4 trillion USD giant.
If untouched in some hypothetical straight line, Wayne’s original 10% share would be worth hundreds of billions today, turning his low-key exit into one of Silicon Valley’s most mythologized “what if” moments.
The contract will headline Christie’s “We the People: America at 250” sale on January 23, 2026, where it will sit alongside a draft of the US Constitution, underlining how tech ephemera now shares space with foundational political documents.
Main Image: Apple contract. Photo: courtesy Christie’s.