Apple Inc chief executive officer Tim Cook is to hand the reins to hardware boss John Ternus this year, capping a 15-year tenure that turned the company into a US$4 trillion business that spans watches, video streaming and financial services.
Ternus is to become CEO on Sept. 1, when Cook would transition to executive chairman, the company said in a statement on Monday.
Ternus, 50, has served as head of hardware engineering since 2021 and spent 25 years focused on product development at the iPhone maker.
Photo: Apple Inc via AFP
Ternus must now chart a new path for one of Silicon Valley’s most storied businesses at a challenging moment. Although Apple’s growth remains strong, the company has struggled to catch up in artificial intelligence (AI) — technology that promises to transform the way consumers use devices.
“John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor,” Cook said in the statement. “He is a visionary whose contributions to Apple over 25 years are already too numerous to count, and he is without question the right person to lead Apple into the future.”
The announcement comes as Apple marks its 50th anniversary this year, and investors largely took it in stride. After dipping nearly 2 percent in late trading, Apple shares pared their losses. They were down less than 0.5 percent to US$271.70 by Monday evening in New York. The company’s shares have gained about 2,000 percent since Cook took the CEO job in August 2011.
In the new executive chairman role, Cook would be engaging with policymakers around the world, Apple said.
The 65-year-old CEO already oversees Apple’s relationship with US President Donald Trump and often travels to China to manage the company’s ties with Beijing.
When he steps down as CEO, Cook would have served a record 15 years in the position. Over that span, he helped build on the success of the Mac and iPhone by pushing into health services, smartwatches and earbuds. Annual sales almost quadrupled to US$416 billion in the last fiscal year, and Apple now touts an active installed base of more than 2.5 billion devices.
During the Cook era, the company introduced larger iPhones, multiple new iPads, and services like Apple Music and Apple TV. There have also been flops, including the Vision Pro headset and a failed attempt to build a self-driving car. The Cupertino, California-based company spent a decade working on both.
Cook’s tenure was also mired by misfires in AI. OpenAI, Anthropic PBC, Alphabet Inc’s Google and others have launched world-changing AI products, while Apple has largely sat on the sidelines.
Ternus is a strong believer in AI and reorganized the hardware engineering division this month to operate with a new AI platform designed to help with product development and improving device quality, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Cook has been preparing Ternus for the role for months, asking him at the end of last year to informally take over the company’s software and hardware design teams. He has also inherited a new hardware prototyping team in the past few months and took charge of hardware engineering for the Apple Watch.
In a memo to the hardware engineering group, Ternus said he is stepping away from his current role on Monday.
Still, he is not going far.
“I look forward to working with you very closely in my new role. Needless to say, I still plan to be very hands-on,” he said.
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