Tim Cook to Step Down as Apple CEO, John Ternus to Succeed Him

On September 1, 2026, Tim Cook will step down as chief executive officer after 15 years in the role, with hardware engineering chief John Ternus set to take over the company in his stead.

Cook, who succeeded Steve Jobs in 2011, will remain as executive chairman of the board. He told employees in a memo that the decision was his own. "Leading Apple has been the privilege of a lifetime, and I am deeply confident in John's ability to carry Apple forward," he wrote.

Ternus, a 22-year Apple veteran, has overseen the engineering teams behind the iPhone, iPad, and Mac since 2021. His promotion places a hardware-focused executive back at the top of a company that has spent recent years wrestling with a slower-than-expected AI rollout. The decision to pick Ternus over Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams, who was also widely seen as a candidate, signals that Apple's board wants leadership deeply rooted in product development.

Under Cook, Apple's market value rose from roughly $350 billion to nearly $4 trillion, driven by the iPhone's dominance and a dramatic expansion into services. But his final years were marked by growing questions about Apple's AI strategy. The company repeatedly delayed a major Siri upgrade, and it has lagged behind Google and Microsoft in integrating generative AI across its devices. The Siri update was announced only recently at the WWDC 2026. Analysts at Wedbush called the leadership change a "clearing event" that could reset the company's innovation narrative.

Ternus will inherit a product pipeline that includes a foldable iPhone expected in 2027 and the Vision Pro mixed-reality headset, which has struggled to gain traction. His ability to accelerate Apple's AI efforts while maintaining the company's privacy-first approach will likely define his early tenure.