Tim Cook’s last day as Apple chief executive was 31 August 2026, ending a 15-year tenure that took the company’s market value to $4.75 trillion. John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, takes over as chief executive on 1 September.
Cook became Apple’s chief executive in 2011, two months before Steve Jobs passed away. He led the company through a global pandemic, supply-chain upheaval and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).
Apple announced in April 2026 that Cook would step down as chief executive on 1 September. He is set to become executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors.
Cook told Ternus that he would continue managing Apple’s relationships with President Donald Trump and the Chinese government. He also told staff that the company would remain his No. 1 priority.
In a memo to employees, Cook wrote that he took “enormous comfort in handing the helm to someone as brilliant and wonderful and capable” as Ternus. He added: “Few people understand what it takes to build products that change the world the way John does and I could not be more excited for his leadership”.
Cook also wrote: “This place is proof that culture triumphs over everything”.
Ternus joined Apple in 2001 as a member of the company’s Product Design team. He was formally promoted to senior vice president of Hardware Engineering in January of 2021. He brings 25 years of experience at Apple to the chief executive role.
The change hands responsibility for Apple’s day-to-day leadership to an executive whose work has centred on its hardware, while Cook remains at the company in a board role. Apple has not set out Ternus’s strategy for the company or detailed how Cook’s executive chairman role will operate.
Cook has said he plans to take up more outdoor activities and spend time at his vacation home in Palm Springs. For 15 years, he woke up before 4 a.m. to read customer emails, rising “a bit before four” and spending the first hour going through user comments.
Cook receives 700 to 800 emails everyday in his inbox and reads “the majority of” them. Phil Schiller is also stepping down from leading the App Store and Apple events.
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