Apple’s ‘Birth Certificate’ Is Up for Auction — And It’s Worth Millions

A new piece of Apple history is up for auction, and it could turn out to be the most valuable one that’s ever been sold — and it’s not the sort of item many would expect to fetch top dollar.

We’ve seen dozens of Apple memorabilia auctioned off over the years, from Steve Jobs’ iconic suits and early cheques signed by the Apple co-founder to handwritten schematics and the first Apple creation by the company’s other legendary co-founder, Steve Wozniak.

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Some of those, like vintage Apple-1 computers, have gone for seven figures, but now there’s a new auction that could drive the record even higher — and it’s not vintage hardware, but just a few pieces of paper.

Of course, it’s what’s on those pages that’s significant. In this case, the key item in question is the original three-page partnership agreement drawn up in 1976 between Apple’s co-founders: Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and the lesser-known Ron Wayne.

In other words, this is the document that created the Apple Computer Company nearly fifty years ago. While it hasn’t officially gone up for auction yet, Arirang News reports that it’s expected to be listed at Christie’s in New York as a single lot that will also include a letter from Wayne, in which he withdrew as a partner only a few days after the company was formed.

The document is expected to fetch between $2 and $4 million in an auction that will go live on January 23, 2026 as part of the We the People: America at 250 auction.

It’s not the first time this document has surfaced at an auction. In 2011, it sold for $1.6 million at auction at Sotheby’s New York to Eduardo Cisneros, CEO of Cisneros Corporation. At the time, it was only expected to fetch $150,000, but it beat out the first letter written by George Washington, which sold for around $362,000 — a number in line with its pre-sale estimate.

It’s unclear if Christie’s will be auctioning the same copy, as it would be normal practice for there to be multiple signed originals of any partnership agreement. However, the inclusion of Wayne’s withdrawal letter suggests it’s likely the same lot, being sold either by Cisneros or another collector who may have acquired it in the interim.

The original partnership agreement divided up the ownership of Apple between Jobs and Wozniak at 45% each, while assigning another 10% to Wayne. However, in an ironic and unfortunate twist (for Wayne, at least) not only did the minority partner bow out of Apple for a mere $800 — a share that would be worth over $400 billion today — but he also sold his physical copy of the founding contract for $500 in the early 1990s. That same set of papers has since sold for millions and could fetch another $4 million at auction early next year.