Apple CEO Tim Cook Steps Down, Replacement Already Named

Apple CEO Tim Cook will step down in September after 15 years at the company’s helm, Apple announced Monday.

Cook’s transition to executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors, while Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus will take over as CEO effective September 1, 2026. 

“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,” said Cook. “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.” 

Cook was hired in 1998 by the company’s founder, Steve Jobs. Under his leadership, the company’s market capitalization grew from $360 billion to $4 trillion. Like Cook, Ternus also worked under Jobs, joining Apple in 2001. Ternus says he’s “humbled to step into this role” and promises “to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special palace for half a century.”

Ternus will now be tasked with leading the helm as Apple enters the age of artificial intelligence. Apple’s Siri chatbot has fallen behind compared to modern AI standards, such as Google Gemini, which Apple will partner with to power a new version of Siri coming this year. Apple’s AI strategy revolves around chips that it designs itself rather than spending hundreds of billions of dollars on chips and data centers to build its own large language models.