Apple just confirmed what the tech world had been expecting. Tim Cook — the man who took Apple's market cap from $350 billion to $4 trillion across 15 years — is stepping down as CEO. His last official day is August 31, 2026. John Ternus, Apple's Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, officially takes the CEO title on September 1, in a transition approved unanimously by Apple's board of directors.
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15 Years, $4 Trillion, and a Legacy That Speaks for Itself
Cook took the CEO role in 2011 when Steve Jobs formally handed it off. During his tenure, Apple introduced the Apple Watch, AirPods, Apple Silicon Macs, Apple Pay, Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple Intelligence, among much more. The numbers tell the story clearly: Apple hit $1 trillion in 2018, $2 trillion in 2020, $3 trillion in 2022, and $4 trillion in 2025. The company also reported $112 billion in net income for fiscal year 2025 — eight times what Apple posted in 2010.
His final major launch as CEO was the MacBook Neo, Apple's first low-cost MacBook, which arrived last month. For a CEO wrapping up 15 years, that is a strong final note.
Cook is not leaving the company entirely. He will serve as Executive Chairman of Apple's board, focusing on international policy engagement and trade and manufacturing matters. He joined President Donald Trump last year to announce a $600 billion U.S. spending commitment — the largest investment plan in Apple's history.
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Who Is John Ternus, Apple's Next CEO?
Ternus, 50, joined Apple in 2001 and has led some of the company's most consequential hardware decisions. He gets significant credit for pushing durability and repairability into Apple's product design, including the introduction of new recycled aluminum compounds used across multiple product lines and advances in device fixability.
Cook publicly described his successor as someone with "the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor." Ternus, in his own statement, 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." He pledged to honour the values that have defined Apple for half a century.
Arthur Levinson, who served as Apple's non-executive chairman for the past 15 years, will shift to the role of lead independent director, effective September 1.
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What to Expect From Apple Under Ternus
Ternus takes over at a pivotal moment. Apple is reportedly planning to release its first-ever foldable iPhone in September 2026, according to Bloomberg. A long-awaited Siri update is also expected at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June — a move that could sharpen Apple's AI position against OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Gemini.
Johny Srouji and Tom Marieb will take on expanded roles in hardware engineering as part of the wider leadership restructure announced alongside the Apple CEO transition. The handoff is already well underway.
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Tim Cook's run at Apple is one of the most remarkable corporate stories in modern history. He took a company many thought could not survive without its founder and made it the most valuable company on the planet. Now, John Ternus steps into the top role with a hardware-forward mindset at exactly the moment Apple needs to prove itself on AI, foldables, and its next major product era. For Apple fans across the UAE and internationally, this is a chapter worth watching closely.
