It might be difficult for many Apple faithful to remember the dark days before Steve Jobs’ triumphant return to the throne, especially given the absolute hot streak the company has been on in recent years. But one of the people who remember it well is someone who was instrumental in helping the company get back on its feet at the time: former Microsoft chief Bill Gates.

CNBC recently hosted a Town Hall Chat with Gates and Warren Buffet, and one of the juiciest moments of the talk came when audience member David Matthews of Columbia Executive Business School posed the question, “If you could just comment and tell us what your thoughts are on the job Steve Jobs has done as the CEO of Apple?”

The query received a round of laughter from the audience and a big grin from Gates, who promptly went on to answer the question by praising his former competitor as only he could:

“Well, he’s done a fantastic job,” Gates proclaimed. “Apple is in a bit of a different business where they make hardware and software together. But when Steve was coming back to Apple… Apple was in very tough shape. In fact, most likely it wasn't going to survive. And he brought in a team… that’s made Apple back into being an incredible force in doing good things.

“And it's great to have competitors like that. We write software for Apple, Microsoft does. They compete with Apple,” Gates concluded. “But he, of all the leaders in the industry that I've worked with, he showed more inspiration and he saved the company.”