Apple taps John Ternus as CEO to replace Tim Cook, becoming chairman

Apple said on Monday that John Ternus is succeeding Tim Cook as CEO, with Cook assuming the role of executive chairman on Sept. 1.

Ternus, a senior vice president of hardware engineering, will join Apple’s board of directors when he becomes chief. Apple’s non-executive chairman Arthur Levinson will become the iPhone-maker’s lead independent director on that date.

“Cook will continue in his role as CEO through the summer as he works closely with Ternus on a smooth transition,” Apple said in a press release.

It’s the first CEO transition for Apple since Cook, now 65, succeeded Steve Jobs at the helm in 2011, shortly before Jobs’ death. Ternus will become Apple’s eighth CEO.

“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 love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people who have been unwavering in their dedication to enriching the lives of our customers and creating the best products and services in the world.”

Apple also said that Johny Srouji will become chief hardware officer, taking over for Ternus in an expanded role. Srouji, who most recently served as the company’s senior vice president of hardware technologies, will also lead hardware engineering.

Apple’s market cap increased by roughly 24-fold on Cook’s watch, closing on Monday at $4 trillion. Cook took home $74.6 million in total compensation last year, including a $3 million base salary and millions more in stock awards, according to recent regulatory filings. Forbes estimates his net worth at $2.2 billion.

However, Apple faces numerous challenges, including an increasingly complex supply chain, geopolitical tensions, the Trump administration’s tariffs and a memory crunch tied to soaring demand for AI chips.

Ternus, who’s about 15 years younger than Cook, has been Apple’s hardware boss and has worked at Apple for about half his life, joining just four years after he graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in mechanical engineering. He’s been widely viewed as next in line, with recent profiles in The New York Times and Bloomberg. His portfolio has included oversight of the hardware engineering teams behind the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro.

During his almost 15-year tenure, Cook oversaw Apple’s jump into wearable technology, with the rollout of the Apple Watch, AirPods and the virtual reality headset Vision Pro, which has struggled to find market adoption since its release in 2024.

Revenue almost quadrupled under Cook, climbing to over $400 billion in the latest fiscal year. Cook is best known in Silicon Valley as an operations guru, revamping Apple’s supply chain after joining in 1998 as an executive vice president of worldwide sales and operations. When he arrived, Apple was near bankruptcy.

Cook became one of Jobs’ loyal lieutenants and was elevated to the role of Apple operations chief in 2005. Before joining Apple, Cook cut his teeth in the tech industry spending 12 years working at IBM, helping the company manufacture computers. He also spent a short stint at former PC maker Compaq as a vice president of corporate materials. Cook got his college degree at Auburn University in 1982 and an MBA from Duke University in 1988.

For Ternus, perhaps the most critical aspect of his job will be pushing the company deeper into artificial intelligence, where it’s lagged many of its megacap peers.

While the iPhone 17 has done well, Apple has faced criticism from investors and technologists for a perceived lack of cutting-edge AI technology. That criticism grew after Apple last year delayed an upgrade to its Siri voice assistant. In December, Apple revamped its AI leadership, replacing its former chief with a Google veteran.

The company has said it will launch an updated version of Siri this year based on a Google Gemini AI model.

In recent years, Cook acted as a public statesman to advance Apple’s interests, meeting with both foreign and domestic leaders. Initially, he pushed for increased internet privacy protections around the world. In 2016, he notably clashed with the U.S. government over whether Apple would have to help unlock an encrypted iPhone used by a criminal gunman in San Bernardino, California.

Cook said to do so would threaten Apple users’ privacy, and the FBI eventually found a different way to unlock the device. Of late, much of Cook’s public lobbying has focused on President Donald Trump, who has threatened and repealed several tariffs on imports from China and other Asian countries that could deeply impact Apple’s business.

Cook attended White House events and promised to make investments in the U.S. In August, Cook visited the White House, appearing with Trump, to trumpet an announcement that Apple would spend $600 billion in the U.S. over the next five years.

At the August meeting, Trump read a list of Apple’s commitments next to Cook and said, “I love that you’re doing this.”

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— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

WATCH: Apple executives Johnny Srouji and John Ternus on its growing chip business.