Steve Jobs spent a year customizing his private jet with unique and eye-catching details and it looks like no other luxury plane out there

Steve Jobs’ MO was being famously particular about the smallest details, and that obsession extended well beyond the technology products that made him a household name.

This included his private jet, which has now changed hands again.

The Apple co-founder once spent more than a year perfecting the interior of his own private jet, even making changes to seemingly insignificant features that most passengers would probably never notice.

Now, the aircraft has made headlines again after a fresh change in ownership involving some of the biggest names in the tech world.

And it’s still as glorious as it was when Jobs owned it.

Steve Jobs was given a $45 million private jet as a reward for saving Apple

The airplane in question is a Gulfstream V, a long-range private jet that Apple awarded Jobs in December 1999 as a bonus for helping turn the struggling company around.

At the time, Jobs was still receiving his modest annual salary of just $1, but Apple’s board clearly felt his contribution deserved something a little more substantial.

The company announced the gift in January 2000, alongside stock options, after its market capitalization had climbed from less than $2 billion to more than $16 billion during the previous two and a half years.

The Gulfstream was worth around $45 million, although the total cost to Apple was reportedly $88 million when other expenses were included.

But Jobs wasn’t interested in simply accepting the aircraft and leaving everything as it was.

Jobs spent over a year customizing his jet and even changed a tiny detail

Jobs was so impressed by the private jet belonging to his friend Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle, that he decided to use it as inspiration for his own aircraft.

However, he couldn’t resist making a few improvements.

One of the most interesting changes involved the buttons used to operate an interior cabin door.

Ellison’s aircraft had separate buttons for opening and closing the door, surrounded by polished stainless steel.

Jobs wanted a single button that could perform both functions, and he also preferred the look of brushed metal over the shiny finish.

It might sound like a ridiculously small detail to spend time worrying about, but that was exactly the kind of thing Jobs was known for.

The designer responsible for making the change was reportedly frustrated by the request, although Ellison eventually admitted that his friend’s alterations had improved the aircraft.

As quoted in Walter Isaacson’s biography of Jobs, Ellison said: “I look at his airplane and mine, and everything he changed was better.”

Jobs also worked alongside Apple’s legendary designer Jony Ive on the aircraft’s interior, meaning the jet was a collaboration between two people responsible for some of the most recognizable designs in technology.

Jony Ive reportedly bought the aircraft from Jobs’s widow

Following Jobs’s death in 2011, the Gulfstream passed to his widow, Laurene Powell Jobs.

Jony Ive, who had worked closely with Jobs at Apple and helped customize the aircraft, reportedly purchased it from her.

By February 2020, historical aircraft registration records listed LoveFrom Inc., Ive’s design company founded after his departure from Apple, as the aircraft’s registrant.

However, the Gulfstream has since changed hands again.

Records show that a certificate issued by the Federal Aviation Administration on May 13, 2026, listed Trousdale Aviation LLC as its new registered owner.

The company is connected to investor Phillip Sarofim through Trousdale Ventures.

The aircraft has also gone through several registration identities over the years.

Although the latest registration does not independently confirm the precise date or terms of the sale, it marks another chapter in the fascinating story of a private jet that has been connected to some of Silicon Valley’s most influential figures.

And considering how much thought Jobs put into even a single cabin button, it’s safe to say this isn’t just any ordinary Gulfstream.