Tim Cook to step down as Apple CEO; John Ternus to take over

Tim Cook will step down as CEO of Apple and become executive chairman of the board, with the company naming hardware chief John Ternus as its next CEO effective September 1, 2026.

Apple said the leadership change was unanimously approved by its board of directors as part of a long-term succession plan. Cook will remain chief executive through the summer and work with Ternus during the transition.

Ternus is Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering and has spent nearly his entire career at the company. He joined Apple’s product design team in 2001, became a vice president of Hardware Engineering in 2013 and joined the executive team in 2021.

Apple said Ternus has overseen hardware engineering across products including the iPhone, Mac, iPad, AirPods and Apple Watch. He will also join Apple’s board of directors on September 1.

Cook joined Apple in 1998 and became chief executive in 2011 after succeeding co-founder Steve Jobs. Under his leadership, Apple said its market capitalization grew from about $350 billion to $4 trillion and annual revenue rose from $108 billion in fiscal 2011 to more than $416 billion in fiscal 2025.

The company also credited Cook with overseeing the rollout of products including the Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Vision Pro, while expanding Apple’s services business into a unit generating more than $100 billion in annual revenue.

Arthur Levinson, who has served as Apple’s non-executive chairman for the past 15 years, will become lead independent director on September 1.

“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,” Cook said in a statement. “I could not be more confident in [Ternus’] abilities and his character, and I look forward to working closely with him on this transition and in my new role as executive chairman.”