Steve Wozniak had been scheduled as the closing speaker of a business conference in Mexico. Photo: Getty
Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has been rushed to hospital in Mexico after what he says was a “minor but real” stroke.
Wozniak, 73, was in Mexico City to speak at a the World Business Forum, a two-day gathering billed as the world’s most important management event, when he fell ill.
He told America’s ABC News that he felt dizzy on Wednesday morning (local time) while working on his computer. That was followed by a bout of vertigo, and Wozniak could not walk.
He said an MRI test showed that he’d had a stroke.
On Thursday, Wozniak told the ABC he was no longer in hospital and on his way back to the US.
Earlier, there were reports Wozniak had suffered a mystery “health problem” shortly before he was scheduled to arrive at the conference.
“At this moment I understand that he is stable,” a source said, adding that the information about the tech founder’s status had come from family members.
The convivial Wozniak, who teamed up with the late Steve Jobs to found Apple in 1976, was meant to be the conference’s closing speaker on Wednesday afternoon.
Other advertised speakers were Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard, and Muhammad Yunus, a pioneer in microfinance who was awarded the Nobel peace prize.
Wozniak famously designed the Apple I and Apple II computers, which revolutionised personal computing and established Apple as a market leader.
He was the technical engineer behind these systems, while Jobs was the visionary and marketing expert.
Wozniak left Apple in 1985 to pursue a wide range of other interests but has remained a fervent supporter of the company and a technology evangelist.
– with AAP