Apple CEO Tim Cook to step down in September, hand helm to John Ternus

Tim Cook's departure as chief executive caps a year and a half of high-profile moves in Apple's small inner leadership circle. Photo by AP/Godofredo A. Vásquez

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Tim Cook will step down as Apple Inc.’s chief executive at the beginning of September and be replaced by hardware chief John Ternus, marking the end of a 15-year run leading the iPhone maker.

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Cook, who took over the role from founder Steve Jobs in 2011, will become chair of Apple’s board of directors, the company announced on Monday.

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Cook’s departure from the top job makes Ternus only the third Apple CEO in the past 30 years. The FT reported in November that Apple’s board was preparing to name a new chief executive this year.

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Ternus, a 25-year Apple veteran long viewed as Cook’s likely successor, oversees the engineering of its leading products, including the iPhone, iPad and the Mac.

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Apple shares fell less than 1 per cent in after-hours trading.

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Cook, 65, said Ternus “has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honour”, adding that he was “without question the right person to lead Apple into the future.”

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Ternus takes the helm at a challenging time for the iPhone maker as it faces unprecedented political pressure from the Trump administration to shift manufacturing to the United States.

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The new chief executive will also have to guide Apple’s AI strategy as it struggles to harness the technology in its products following a rare series of misfires.

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“I am filled with optimism about what we can achieve in the years to come,” Ternus said. “I have been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor.”

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As chair, Cook will replace Arthur Levinson, who will become lead independent director after 15 years leading the board.

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Cook, a close confidante of Apple’s founder, initially took over as interim CEO while Jobs was undergoing cancer treatment in 2009 before assuming permanent responsibilities in August 2011 shortly before Jobs’ death.

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During Cook’s tenure, Apple has grown roughly 10-fold, selling more than US$200 billion of iPhones and becoming a services behemoth that generates more than US$100 billion a year from businesses such as the App Store, Apple Pay and iCloud.

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Though lacking the showy personality and aggressive product focus of Jobs, Cook has widely been hailed for his operational expertise and credited with building out the company’s vast manufacturing network in China and south-east Asia.

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Cook steered the company through the COVID-19 pandemic and legal and tax scrutiny from antitrust regulators and politicians. Recently, he has had to navigate U.S.-China trade disruptions under President Donald Trump, securing repeated tariff carve-outs for the company’s products.

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Apple has also released a series of new products under Cook, including the Apple Watch, Vision Pro and AirPods. These additions have diversified its revenue, although the iPhone still accounts for roughly half of sales. An ambitious project to build an Apple car was shelved in 2024.