Wozniak pictured at an event in 2017.Photo: Emmanuele Contini/NurPhoto (Getty Images)
Apple’s cofounder Steve Wozniak, Woz, is “back home and feeling good” after he was hospitalized for a minor stroke in Mexico City Wednesday, according to an interview he gave with The New York Times Thursday. The 73-year-old technology legend, who was in Mexico to speak at the World Business Forum, was admitted to ABC Hospital in the city, originally reported by local news outlet Reforma.
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The beloved technologist will have to cancel his upcoming speaking engagements due to the health scare, says The NY Times. Woz told his wife he was “feeling strange” after giving a speech at the forum Wednesday, and then he started exhibiting symptoms that alarmed his spouse, sources with direct knowledge told TMZ. Several people from Woz’s team flew to Mexico City to asses his situation firsthand, and take him back to the United States for continued treatment if necessary.
A representative from Woz.org did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment on his current condition.
Wozniak cofounded Apple with Steve Jobs in 1976 and helped build the company’s first computer. In 1980, Wozniak offered employees $10 million of his own stock in the company when Jobs refused to give employees any stock options. Woz said it was “the right thing to do,” speaking to his character and true love for the field of technology. He left the company in 1985 and barely had any stock in the company.
The technologist said Apple should be broken up in 2019 on Bloomberg TV, citing how tech companies have become monopolistic. “I think Big Tech has gotten too big, it’s too powerful a force in our life and it’s taken our choices away,” said Woz. His primary concern with how Big Tech companies treat their customers is honesty.
Wozniak has been honored with the ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award and the National Medal of Technology. In September of 2000, he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame.
In recent years, Wozniak has been a part of the space startup, Privateer, which aims to bring satellite access to the masses through a global online marketplace.