Tim Cook to become Apple Executive Chairman, hardware chief John Ternus named CEO effective September 1

Apple announced its first CEO transition since 2011, with Tim Cook stepping into the Executive Chairman role and SVP of Hardware Engineering John Ternus becoming CEO effective September 1, 2026. Ternus, 50, has spent 25 years at Apple and was unanimously selected by the Board. Under Cook's 15-year tenure, Apple's profit quadrupled to over $110B and its market cap grew more than tenfold to $4 trillion. Arthur Levinson becomes Lead Independent Director on September 1.