Apple — Net Worth and Career Earnings
Apple generated $391 billion in total revenue in fiscal year 2024, verified through its annual SEC filing, making it one of the largest revenue-generating companies in human history. Net income was $94 billion on a gross margin of 46.2% — financial metrics that reflect Apple's extraordinary ability to command premium prices across its product and services portfolio. The iPhone alone generated $201 billion in revenue, remaining the company's largest single revenue source despite Apple's strategic push to grow higher-margin services income.
Apple's Services segment — encompassing the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Pay and various subscription products — generated $100 billion in revenue in FY2024, growing at approximately 13% year-on-year. This segment is strategically critical because it generates margins significantly higher than hardware, creating compounding profitability as the installed base of 2.2 billion active devices continues to grow. The App Store alone is estimated to generate $25-30 billion annually after developer payouts.
Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in a garage in Los Altos, California. It became the first company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalisation in 2018, the first to $2 trillion in 2020, and has competed with Microsoft for the title of world's most valuable public company through 2025-26. Tim Cook, who succeeded Steve Jobs as CEO in August 2011, has overseen a tripling of revenue and the transformation of Apple from a hardware company into a services and ecosystem business. The company has approximately 160,000 employees worldwide and operates 524 retail stores across 26 countries.