Apple CEO Tim Cook steps down, John Ternus new CEO

Published: 2026-04-20 20:01:10 ET AAPL

Published on 04/20/2026 at 08:01 pm EDT

Tim Cook will step down later this year as Apple’s CEO. He will be succeeded by John Ternus, who is currently in charge of hardware.

The transition has been in the works for some time and will be completed over the course of 2026. Ternus will officially take over the CEO role on 1 September 2026.

Tim Cook will become Executive Chairman (chairman of the board of directors), and will therefore not disappear entirely. Johny Srouji will assume a larger role as head of hardware.

Ternus has been working at Apple since 2001 and had previously been mentioned as Cook’s successor.

Tim Cook has been CEO since 2011 (after Steve Jobs) and led Apple through a period of enormous growth: under his leadership, the company’s market value rose to more than 4 trillion dollars.