Tim Cook Steps Down as Apple CEO
- Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down and will hand day-to-day leadership to the company's hardware head. - Cook, 65, will transfer CEO duties to Apple's head of hardware engineering, John Ternus. - The change could reshape Cupertino's product direction and investor expectations as Apple plans future hardware roadmaps (patch.com).
Apple said on April 20 that Tim Cook will stop being chief executive on September 1, 2026, and John Ternus will take over. (apple.com) Cook, 65, will become executive chairman of Apple’s board after nearly 15 years as chief executive; the board said it approved the change unanimously. (apple.com) Ternus is Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, and Apple says he leads the teams behind the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods, and Vision Pro. He joined Apple in 2001 and has been a hardware engineering vice president since 2013. (apple.com) Apple paired the CEO handoff with another hardware change: investor relations said Johny Srouji was named chief hardware officer effective April 20, 2026. That keeps Apple’s product engineering bench in flux as the company prepares its next device cycle. (investor.apple.com) Cook took the top job in August 2011 after Steve Jobs resigned, and Apple’s business expanded sharply under his watch. Apple reported $102.5 billion in revenue in the quarter ended September 27, 2025, up 8 percent from a year earlier. (investor.apple.com) (apple.com) The transition lands as Apple is balancing its biggest mature business with newer bets. iPhone remains the company’s core product, while Vision Pro has stayed a premium niche headset rather than a mass-market device. (apple.com) (pcmag.com) That makes Ternus a different kind of successor than Cook. Cook came up through operations and supply chains; Ternus comes from product design and hardware engineering. (investor.apple.com) (apple.com) Outside Apple, coverage of the move has centered on whether a hardware-led chief executive will push the company toward a more product-driven era. The Verge described Ternus as “a product person,” while Apple framed the handoff as the result of a long-term succession plan. (theverge.com) (apple.com) Apple did not describe any strategic reset in its announcement, and Cook is staying on as executive chairman rather than leaving the company. On September 1, the world’s most closely watched hardware company will still have Cook in the room, but Ternus in the chief executive seat. (apple.com)
