John Ternus has taken over as Apple's CEO while Tim Cook stays on as executive chairman. Ternus inherits an AI race Apple is still catching up in, a talent exodus to Meta, and eight days before Apple's September 9 iPhone event.
Cook stays close as Ternus takes the wheel
Ternus takes over the reins from Tim Cook as Apple's chief executive, while Cook moves into the role of executive chairman on the company's board. In that position, Cook will assist with policymaker relationships around the world, according to Apple. According to MarketWatch: "Tim Cook is not going away," Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy, said.
Sag said Cook's ongoing involvement functions as on-the-job training for Ternus, particularly on relationships with heads of state that Ternus has not yet had to manage himself. Apple announced the leadership transition back in April, and Ternus has already appeared on Apple's past two earnings calls and introduced the MacBook Neo in March.
An AI catch-up and a talent drain
The transition lands as Apple works through a rollout of Apple Intelligence and an agentic Siri, alongside supply-chain constraints with memory chips and custom silicon. Apple delayed its AI overhaul of Siri, then turned to Google's Gemini for the next generation of Apple Intelligence.
Apple has also lost AI talent to a single rival: foundation-models leader Ruoming Pang, engineering head Frank Chu, and design VP Alan Dye all left for Meta. Ternus has eight days to settle in before Apple's September 9 iPhone event, where the reported headliner is the company's first foldable iPhone.
What Cook leaves behind
During Cook's 15 years running Apple, the company's annual net sales and net income roughly quadrupled to over $400 billion and $100 billion, respectively, while its market capitalization grew from around $350 billion to $4.6 trillion.
Adjusted for stock splits, Apple's stock price rose by nearly 2,300% during his tenure, from about $13 to $317 at the close of his last day as CEO on Monday, August 30.
Michael Field, Morningstar's chief equity market strategist, said CEO transitions carry particular risk for companies built around a singular vision, pointing to how investors once viewed the handoff from Steve Jobs to Cook. Field called Apple's current approach, keeping Cook nearby while giving Ternus the spotlight, a way of not shocking the market, though he cautioned it could also produce the downsides of neither a clean handoff nor full authority for Ternus to act.
Sources: MarketWatch, Business Insider, Business Insider
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