He has owned Apple since its IPO, and now he owns a Ferrari shaped by the same design mind that helped define the company’s most recognizable products. That makes Herbert A. Wertheim’s $40 million purchase of the Ferrari Luce more compelling than a simple tale of a billionaire spending lavishly on a new car. Wertheim bought Apple shares at the company’s 1980 IPO and continued building his position when the stock traded at around $10 during the 1990s. By 2019, his 1.25 million Apple shares were worth about $195 million.
Now 87, the optometrist, inventor, and veteran investor has acquired the first production Ferrari Luce, whose design was developed in collaboration with LoveFrom, the creative collective founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive and Marc Newson. The car, designated Chassis 0, crossed the block at RM Sotheby’s Monterey auction for an astonishing $40 million, more than 36 times its $1.1 million presale estimate.
The entire hammer price will go toward the Ferrari Foundation, adding a philanthropic dimension to what was already one of the most remarkable Ferrari auction results in recent memory.
From Apple shares to a Jony Ive Ferrari
Wertheim’s connection to Apple stretches back to a very different era. He was already interested in computers through his optical business when Apple went public in 1980, and he bought shares at the IPO before continuing to build his position decades later. Forbes reported in 2019 that his 1.25 million shares, including those bought during the IPO and when Apple traded around $10 in the 1990s, were worth $195 million at the time. His broader portfolio also included Microsoft, GE, Google, BP, Bank of America and, most significantly, aerospace-parts company HEICO.
That makes the Luce an unusually fitting purchase. LoveFrom was founded by Ive after his long tenure at Apple, where he played a central role in the design language behind products including the iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple Park. Ferrari and LoveFrom announced their long-term creative partnership in 2021, bringing Ive and Newson’s design approach into Ferrari’s world.
The Luce represents the first complete car to emerge from that collaboration. It is also Ferrari’s first fully electric production automobile, using four electric motors producing 1,036 hp. Ferrari claims a 0-62 mph time of 2.5 seconds and a top speed of roughly 193 mph. Its 122-kWh battery is rated for about 329 miles of WLTP range and can accept charging at up to 350 kW.
The investor behind the $40 million bid
Wertheim’s route to that fortune was anything but conventional. Born in Philadelphia in 1939 to Jewish immigrants who had fled Nazi Germany, he grew up in Florida above his family’s bakery and struggled with dyslexia at a time when the condition was poorly understood. After facing truancy charges at 16, he was given a choice between a state reformatory and the Navy, choosing to enlist at 17. He later worked at NASA during its early years on instrumentation for manned flight before studying optometry and running a practice in South Florida.
His first stock purchase came at 18, when he used his Navy stipend to buy Lear Jet shares after meeting founder Bill Lear during a visit to a Sikorsky factory. His investment career eventually ran alongside an equally unusual career as an inventor. In 1969, Wertheim developed an ultraviolet-filtering tint for plastic eyeglass lenses designed to help protect against cataracts. After a royalty deal failed to deliver, he founded Brain Power Inc. in 1970 and later developed an early lens neutralizer. The company went on to supply optical products to Bausch & Lomb, Zeiss and Polaroid and holds more than 100 patents and copyrights in optical tints.
Wertheim approaches investing through technology and intellectual property rather than simply studying balance sheets. He has said he spends two six-hour sessions each week reading patents and technical documents, a strategy that led him into Apple and Microsoft around their IPOs and eventually into companies including GE, Google, BP and Bank of America. His biggest success came with HEICO, where a roughly $5 million investment grew to more than $800 million after he began buying shares at prices as low as 33 cents. He has also endured major losses, including a failed BlackBerry bet and a 1982 margin call that cost him around $50 million.
His wealth has fluctuated considerably with the markets, with Forbes placing it at various levels in recent years. His current Forbes profile puts his fortune at roughly $4.9 billion. He has also donated more than $100 million to universities and other causes. Now, the same investor who has held Apple for 46 years has spent $40 million on a Ferrari designed in collaboration with LoveFrom, the studio founded by Jony Ive and Marc Newson. It is an unusually fitting intersection of Wertheim’s lifelong interest in technology, design and long-term innovation.
Chassis 0 is unlike any other Luce
Wertheim’s car is not simply the first Luce delivered. Ferrari designated it Chassis 0 and fitted it with a dedicated plaque, permanently marking its place in the company’s production history. The Tailor Made division created a specification centered on light, with a one-off Madreperla Semi-Gloss finish that shifts from green to violet depending on the angle and intensity of the light.
Inside, reflective Perla Le Mans metallic leather made from selected Swiss hides is paired with Grigio Corvara accents instead of the usual black. Specially finished wheels, brake calipers and even the area behind the Ferrari badge extend the optical-white theme. Ferrari says the complexity of the paint process produces chromatic variations that cannot be precisely replicated. It’s somewhat poetic that Chassis 0 is now owned by a man who has spent 46 years betting on Apple, making the $40 million Ferrari an unusually fitting piece of automotive and design history.