A history of the feud between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, whose love-hate relationship spurred the success of Microsoft and Apple
August 15, 20240
Steve Jobs, left, and Bill Gates, right, were alternately allies and enemies throughout their tenures at Apple and Microsoft, respectively.
Beck Diefenbach/Reuters; Mike Cohen/Getty Images for The New York Times
Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Apple’s Steve Jobs never quite saw eye-to-eye.
They went from cautious allies to bitter rivals to something almost approaching friends — sometimes, they were all three at the same time.
It seems unlikely that Apple would be where it is today without Microsoft, or Microsoft without Apple.
podcast. “I’ll never achieve that level.”
“He was such a wizard at over-motivating people — I was a minor wizard so I couldn’t fall under his spells — but I could see him casting the spells, and then I would look at people and see them mesmerized,” Gates continued in the podcast. “I was so jealous.”
But Jobs was still pretty down on Microsoft, especially after Steve Ballmer took over from Bill Gates as CEO in 2000.
Gates was also not confident in Apple’s success once Jobs was no longer in charge.
Getty Images/Tim Matsui
“The integrated approach works well when Steve is at the helm. But it doesn’t mean it will win many rounds in the future,” Gates said.
They’ve taken swipes at products from each other’s companies.
Jobs has called Gates “unimaginative.”
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“Bill is basically unimaginative and has never invented anything, which is why I think he’s more comfortable now in philanthropy than technology,” Jobs said, according to the Isaacson biography.
Still, in a weird way, the two men clearly respected each other.
Their companies’ histories are inextricably linked.
