Apple Inc. has confirmed that Tim Cook will step down as chief executive on September 1, 2026, ending a 15-year tenure that turned the company into one of the most valuable enterprises in corporate history. He will be succeeded by John Ternus, Apple’s Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, in what the company described as the result of a deliberate and long-planned handover.
Cook will remain at the company as executive chairman, while Ternus will join Apple’s Board of Directors and take over as CEO on September 1. Arthur Levinson, who has served as Apple’s non-executive chairman for the past 15 years, will become lead independent director, also effective September 1.
In a statement, Cook said: “It has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company. I love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people who have been unwavering in their dedication to enriching the lives of our customers and creating the best products and services in the world.”
The transition was approved unanimously by the Board of Directors and follows what Apple called “a thoughtful, long-term succession planning process.”
Ternus, who at 51 is nearly the same age Cook was when he became CEO, has spent almost his entire career at Apple. He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, competed on the varsity swim team, and graduated in 1997. After a brief stint designing virtual-reality headsets at a small firm called Virtual Research Systems, he joined Apple’s product design team in 2001. By 2013, he was vice president of hardware engineering, and in 2021, when his predecessor Dan Riccio stepped aside to oversee what would become the Vision Pro, Ternus was promoted to senior vice president, making him the youngest member of Apple’s executive team.
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Ternus has overseen hardware engineering work on a variety of products across categories including iPads and AirPods as well as generations of the iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch and AirPods, which his team brought to “unprecedented active noise cancellation, as well as the capability to become an all-in-one hearing health system that can serve as over-the-counter hearing aids,” Apple said.
Cook’s exit marks the end of one of the most consequential leadership runs in American business. Cook took the reins at a moment of true uncertainty after Jobs died of pancreatic cancer just six weeks after formally handing off the job, and inherited a company that many industry watchers and enthusiasts struggled to separate from its famed founder. What followed was a systematic and remarkable expansion of the business on every front.
Under Cook, Apple achieved an all-time revenue record of $416.2 billion for fiscal year 2025, including Services revenue surpassing $100 billion for the first time. The company achieved a gross margin of 46.9%, an all-time diluted earnings per share record of $7.46, and returned over $110 billion to shareholders. Apple’s market capitalisation has grown to approximately $3.8 trillion, and the company has over two billion active devices in use worldwide.
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Apple’s fiscal first quarter of 2026 further reinforced the strength of its position, with revenue of $143.8 billion, up 16% year over year, and net income of $42.1 billion. Cook called it “a remarkable, record-breaking quarter,” noting that iPhone had its best-ever quarter with all-time records across every geographic segment, and that Services also achieved an all-time revenue record, up 14% from a year ago.
Yet the succession arrives at a moment of significant pressure. Despite the blowout financials, analysts have highlighted the company’s limited visibility on its vision for artificial intelligence. Apple, and Cook, had shockingly little to say on the AI front, and Apple’s stock has struggled to keep pace with competitors despite its record results.
One analyst summed up the industry reaction plainly: “Cook leaves a lasting legacy in Cupertino and there will be a lot of pressure on Ternus to produce success out of the gates especially on the AI front. While there were rumors of Cook leaving as CEO, investors will for now have more questions than answers around the timing and what this means for the broader Apple strategy. This will put even more pressure on Apple to produce success and its product roadmap at WWDC with AI front and center.”
The shift from Cook to Ternus represents a change not just in personality but in professional emphasis. Cook’s genius was operational: supply chain mastery, margin discipline, and the quiet expansion of the services ecosystem. Ternus comes from the hardware side of the house, and his elevation suggests Apple’s board believes the next phase of growth requires a leader who can drive product innovation more directly, particularly as AI becomes a hardware-level battleground with rivals embedding capabilities across their devices and platforms.
As executive chairman, Cook will “assist with certain aspects of the company, including engaging with policymakers around the world,” a role suited to his established relationships with governments and heads of state built over 15 years of international negotiations on trade, privacy, and technology regulation.
As one analyst put it: “Tim Cook shipped. Cook moved past the navel-gazing of perfectionist designers to get the product out the door, scaling with unprecedented success. His legacy as a visionary tech leader with unsurpassed skills in execution is indisputable, with his model succession handoff to his hand-picked protégé, John Ternus, reflecting the fact that Apple’s best days are still ahead.”
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Apple’s next major public showcase will be its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, where Ternus will have his first opportunity to begin defining what Apple’s AI strategy looks like under his leadership. How he answers that question will set the tone for everything that follows.
