STEVE JOBS MADE A DEAL WITH THE ENERMY BILL GATES
In 1997, Steve Jobs made a deal with the enemy.
He took $150 million from Microsoft, the same company many believed had crushed Apple’s future.
What followed became one of the most fascinating rivalries and turnarounds in tech history.
1997. Apple was dying.
The company had lost billions.
Its products were failing.
Confidence was gone.
Steve Jobs had just returned after 12 years in exile, pushed out of the very company he built.
Most people thought Apple was finished.
Everyone… except Jobs.
He knew he had one last move left.
And that move shocked the world.
Jobs turned to his fiercest rival: Microsoft.
The same company that copied the Mac.
The same company that dominated personal computers.
The same company Apple loyalists hated with passion.
But Jobs understood a brutal truth.
Without Microsoft, Apple would not survive.
At Macworld 1997, Jobs walked onto the stage.
Behind him, a giant screen lit up.
Bill Gates appeared via satellite, smiling.
Microsoft would invest $150 million in Apple.
And Microsoft Office would stay on the Mac.
The crowd booed.
To them, it felt like betrayal.
To Jobs, it was survival.
But to understand why this moment mattered, we have to rewind.
⏪ Back to 1983.
Steve Jobs invited Bill Gates to Apple’s campus.
He wanted him to see a secret project called Macintosh.
A new kind of computer.
Icons. Windows. A mouse.
A graphical interface that made computers human.
At the time, computers were just black screens filled with blinking text.
Microsoft was not building computers.
They only made software.
So why invite Gates?
Because Microsoft was building Excel for the Mac.
A spreadsheet that would later become the backbone of business computing.
To Jobs, this meant partnership.
If Microsoft was building for the Mac, Apple had an ally.
But Gates saw something else.
He saw the future.
Two years later, in 1985, Microsoft launched Windows.
And it looked… very familiar.
Icons.
Windows.
Mouse control.
Jobs was furious.
He felt betrayed.
He called it theft.
Apple sued Microsoft.
The case dragged on for years.
The courts sided with Gates.
To Jobs, it was betrayal.
To Gates, it was business.
That wound never healed.
Fast forward to 1997.
Apple was collapsing.
And Jobs had to swallow his pride and call his friend-turned-enemy.
The deal with Microsoft was not victory.
It was survival.
That $150 million gave Apple three things it desperately needed:
• Cash to keep the lights on
• Software, so customers would not abandon the Mac
• Time, the most valuable currency in business
With time, Jobs rebuilt.
He cut what failed.
Refocused the vision.
And redesigned the future.
Then came the comeback.
1998: iMac. A colorful computer that made tech feel friendly.
2001: iPod. One thousand songs in your pocket.
2007: iPhone. Phone, music, and internet in one device.
2010: iPad. A new category entirely.
One product at a time, Apple reinvented itself.
From a dying brand to a cultural icon.
But there was a cost.
While Apple rebuilt slowly, Windows ruled the PC world.
For years, Microsoft controlled over 90 percent of the market.
Apple survived.
But it did not rule the present.
Jobs was not fighting for today.
He was playing the long game.
He let Microsoft win the desktop.
And quietly built the future.
The iPod put Apple in people’s pockets.
The iPhone made Apple the center of daily life.
The App Store turned developers into allies.
The iPad reshaped how people worked and played.
Apple did not just sell products.
It built an ecosystem.
Not devices, but experiences.
Not tools, but a lifestyle.
Then the world shifted.
The desktop mattered less.
Mobile mattered more.
And Apple owned it.
Today, Apple is worth over $3 trillion.
More than Microsoft.
More than Google.
More than any company in history.
Ironically, the money that saved Apple came from its greatest rival.
The enemy gave Jobs time.
And Jobs used that time to build something bigger than them all.
Lessons from Steve Jobs and Apple:
• Swallow your pride if it keeps you alive
• Play the long game, not the popular one
• Stop fighting rivals on their battlefield
• Control the entire experience
• Reinvention is always possible
Your enemy today might save you tomorrow.
Sometimes, survival matters more than pride.
At its core, the lesson is simple:
Do not obsess over beating people at their game.
Build a new game.
And when the world shifts, you will be the one leading.