Apple-1 computer hand-built by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak sells for $400,000 at auction

An original Apple-1 computer, hand-built by Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, has sold for $400,000, or around ₹2,96,00,000, at an auction in the United States.

The ‘Chaffey College’ Apple-1, as it known, is one of only 50 units assembled by retailer ByteShop in California. Apple-1 units were sold as assembly kits at the time, and ByteShop encased theirs in rare Hawaiian koa wood.

According to John Moran Auctioneers, who handled the sale of the device, the computer has had only two owners. It was originally purchased by a professor at Chaffey College in California, who sold it to one of his students in 1977 for $650.

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The computer has reportedly undergone an extensive authentication, restoration, and evaluation process by one of the foremost experts in the field, who inspected all components.

The buyer will receive user manuals and two cassette tapes with original Apple Software.

Jobs and Wozniak only ever made 200 units of the Apple-1, and the BBC reports that only around 20 functioning units exist in the world today.

The ‘Chaffey College’ Apple-1 is not, however, the most valued unit of the computer sold. In 2014, a working version was sold at an auction in New York for $905,000.