Apple is the world’s second-largest publicly traded company, valued at more than $3.8 trillion as of this article’s last update. The company has rewarded investors handsomely, both in terms of its rising stock price and its quarterly dividend payments, which resumed in 2012.
Its shares are held by both institutional and individual investors. Here’s what you need to know about the company’s largest institutional, executive, and individual shareholders.
Who owns Apple?
In 2026, Apple is owned by both institutional investors (like hedge funds), individual retail investors, and company executives. There were 14.68 billion shares of common stock outstanding as of Jan. 16, 2026, according to Apple’s report for its fiscal 2026 first quarter.
Because Apple is a publicly traded company, anyone with a dollar and access to a brokerage that offers fractional shares can own a tiny piece of it.
Related: History of Apple: Company timeline and facts
Who are the biggest Apple investors?
The largest shareholders of Apple stock are institutional investors. About 65% of Apple’s outstanding shares are held by institutions, according to Yahoo! Finance as of 2026, and the top three holders have a stake valued at more than $100 billion apiece.
The 10 biggest owners of Apple stock
- Vanguard Group (1.43 billion shares)
- Blackrock (1.15 billion shares)
- State Street (604 million shares)
- Geode Capital Management (358 million shares)
- FMR, the parent company of Fidelity Investments (307 million shares)
- Morgan Stanley (230 million shares)
- Berkshire Hathaway (227 million shares)
- JPMorgan Chase (225 million shares)
- Price (T.Rowe) Associates (203 million shares)
- Norges Bank (192 million shares)
Collectively, these top 10 firms hold a third of Apple’s stock.
Vanguard’s stake is valued at more than $374 billion, while BlackRock’s is worth around $303 billion. Berkshire Hathaway’s stake, by comparison, is smaller at $59 billion.
Apple’s biggest executive shareholders
Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, has one of the largest shareholdings among the company’s executives. He held 3,280,295 shares as of October 2025, based on an SEC filing.
Sabih Khan, the company’s chief operating officer, held 1,042,772 shares as of October 2025, according to a disclosure with the SEC. Cook and Khan are among the senior executives who have worked at Apple the longest, with Cook joining in 1998 and Khan in 1995.
Apple said that under its stock ownership guidelines, Cook is expected to own Apple stock with a value equal to 10 times his annual base salary, which in 2025 was $3 million. As of early March 2026, Cook’s stake was valued at $861 million.
Among non-executive shareholders, Arthur D. Levinson, chairman of Apple’s board of directors, owned 4,069,576 shares as of February 2026, according to an SEC filing.
Related: The Dow’s best dividend stocks: A shortlist for income investors
Who originally owned Apple? Apple’s ownership history
Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976. Jobs and Wozniak each held a 45% stake, with Wayne owning the remaining 10%. Wayne, however, sold his 10% stake for $800 just 12 days after the company was started, and he said he had no regrets, according to Fortune.
When Apple went public in 1980, Jobs and Wozniak’s stakes were diluted as additional shares were put up for sale in the IPO. Wozniak reportedly held 8.7% at the time of IPO, and he reportedly reduced that stake further by the time he left Apple in 1985.
Jobs reportedly sold almost all of his 11% stake, valued at around $130 million at the time, but kept a token share when he was ousted by Apple’s board in 1985. Had Jobs and Wozniak held onto their original shares, those stakes would probably be valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars.
More on Apple:
- Tim Cook’s net worth: The Apple CEO’s stock & wealth in 2025
- Steve Wozniak’s net worth: The Apple cofounder’s wealth in 2025
- Steve Jobs’ net worth: How rich Apple’s founder could have been
Apple’s stock performance
Apple’s common stock trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the ticker symbol AAPL and is part of major indexes, including the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500. It is the world’s second-largest publicly traded company, with a market capitalization of $3.8 trillion.
Since it went public in 1980, the stock has risen more than 2,000-fold, suggesting that a $10,000 investment on the first day of trading would be worth over $20 million as of this article’s last update. In the past 20 years alone, the stock has risen more than 116-fold.
Further gains in Apple’s stock prices would benefit Apple’s executives and non-executives who continue to be vested in Apple shares and be awarded restricted stock units (RSUs) as part of their compensation.
Related: History of Microsoft: Company timeline & facts
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