Apple has confirmed that Tim Cook will step down as CEO later this year, with senior vice president of Hardware Engineering John Ternus set to become the company’s next chief executive officer.
Cook will leave the CEO role on September 1, 2026, and will become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors.
“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. “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.”
Cook also praised Ternus, saying: “John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor. 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.”
Ternus, who joined Apple in 2001, has overseen the company’s hardware engineering teams since 2021 and has played a major role in products including the iPhone, iPad, Mac, AirPods, and Apple Watch. In recent years, he has increasingly been viewed as Cook’s most likely successor, with reports suggesting Apple had been intensifying succession planning behind the scenes.
“I am profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple’s mission forward,” Ternus said. “Having spent almost my entire career at Apple, I have been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor.”
Ternus added that he is “filled with optimism” about Apple’s future and promised to lead “with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century.”
Cook has led Apple since August 2011, taking over from Steve Jobs shortly before Jobs died. During Cook’s tenure, Apple launched products including Apple Watch, AirPods, Vision Pro, Apple Silicon Macs, and Apple Intelligence, while growing into one of the world’s most valuable companies.
At 50 years old, Ternus is one of Apple’s younger senior executives and has been seen internally as a natural successor because of his engineering background and close involvement in Apple’s major hardware products.
