Apple at 50: From Garage Startup to Trillion-Dollar Icon

On April 1, 2026, Apple turned 50. To mark the occasion, Tech & Co assembled a remarkable panel: Jean-Louis Gassée, Apple's first French general manager and later head of R&D at Cupertino in the 1980s; Pascal Cagni, Apple's European general manager and vice president from 2000 to 2012; Luc Julia, co-creator of Siri who worked at Apple in 2010-2011; and Tony Fadell, the engineer behind the iPod and early iPhone, interviewed live from Paris. Together they traced Apple's improbable arc from a garage startup to a $4 trillion company, while debating whether its soul survived Steve Jobs.

The Garage Years and the First Crisis

Apple was founded on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. The Apple I was not a computer but a circuit board sold for $666.66 — Jobs added the 66 cents. Wayne, who handled administrative duties, sold his 10% stake shortly after. The company formally incorporated in February 1977.