How Much Did Ross Perot Invest in NeXT?

David Senra, reading Geoffrey Cain, says Ross Perot put $20 million into NeXT for a 16% stake and became the company's largest outside shareholder.

On November 5, 1986, with the cash balance dwindling, Perot happened to see a PBS documentary called Entrepreneurs. The next morning he left a voicemail: if you ever need an investor, call me. Jobs waited a week so he would not look desperate, then called. One condition was more skin in the game, so Jobs put in another $5 million of his own money. Another $25 million came into NeXT.

A second deal stayed out of every press release and regulatory filing, and the terms were never written down. To sell the computer, Perot was willing to use his government contacts and the sales force of Perot Systems, the company he was planning to start. That firm would build on his record selling technology to the military, intelligence agencies, and the federal government.