Who owns the most shares of Apple? Here's a look at the company's biggest shareholders.
There are around 900 million active iPhones around the globe, according to Finances Online. In 2021, Apple controlled over 25% of the mobile operating system market worldwide, and despite losing the global phone race to Android, Apple has a tight grip on the United States market.
Apple generated $365 billion in revenue in 2021, according to Business of Apps. Over half of this revenue was from iPhone sales.
But who’s pulling the strings? It’s easy to see such a ubiquitous company as a monolith, but Apple’s success actually relies on the decision-making of a few key individuals and organizations.
Who owns Apple?
Apple is a public company, meaning its ownership consists of shareholders. According to Macrotrends, Apple had over 16 billion shares outstanding as of March 2022.
Apple’s largest share quantities are owned by organizations. According to Investopedia, as of February 2021, Apple's biggest institutional shareholder was the Vanguard Group, which owned more than 1.3 billion shares, 7.83% of shares outstanding at that time. BlackRock owned 1.11 billion shares, 6.60% of shares outstanding. Berkshire Hathaway owned more than a billion shares, almost 6% of shares outstanding.
Large numbers of Apple shares are also owned by Apple insiders — executive employees and those on the board of directors. As of December 2020, chairman Arthur Levinson owned over 4.5 million shares, CEO Tim Cook owned over 800,000 shares, and COO Jeff Williams owned almost 500,000 shares, according to Investopedia.
Who owns Google?: The same company that owns Waze and YouTube.
Who is the richest person in the world?: It's not Jeff Bezos anymore.
Who is the CEO of Apple?
In August 2011, Tim Cook was named CEO of Apple, according to the company. Before the death of former CEO Steve Jobs, Cook served as COO.
When was Apple founded?
According to the Library of Congress, Apple was founded April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
Just curious?: We're here to answer your everyday questions.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who owns Apple? The publicly traded company's biggest shareholders.
