CUPERTINO, Calif. — Tim Cook is spending his final day as Apple’s chief executive, closing a 15-year tenure that transformed the company from a business still defined by the iPhone and the legacy of Steve Jobs into one of the world’s most valuable technology companies.
On Tuesday, Sept. 1, Apple hardware chief John Ternus is set to take over as chief executive. Cook will remain at Apple as executive chairman, a role expected to keep him involved in selected strategic matters, including engagement with policymakers and governments around the world.
The handoff is the most consequential leadership change at Apple since Cook succeeded Jobs in August 2011, shortly before the co-founder’s death. It comes at a pivotal moment for the company: Apple is preparing for a Sept. 9 product event expected to feature its newest iPhone lineup and possibly its long-awaited foldable phone, while it faces growing pressure to show it can compete in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence market.
For investors, employees, consumers and the wider technology sector, Cook’s departure from the chief executive role is more than a routine management transition. It ends one of the longest and most commercially successful leadership periods in corporate America — while opening a new chapter for a company confronting questions about innovation, AI, device growth and a global supply chain under strain.
From Jobs successor to Apple institution
Cook inherited Apple at a moment of enormous uncertainty.
Jobs was not only Apple’s co-founder but its defining creative force, credited with guiding the development of the Macintosh, iPod, iPhone and iPad. When Cook took over, many analysts and consumers questioned whether Apple could maintain its cultural influence and product momentum without the executive whose product presentations and exacting standards had become inseparable from the company’s identity.
Cook brought a different leadership profile. He was known less as a showman than as an operations specialist, a supply-chain executive who had helped Apple build one of the world’s most efficient manufacturing and distribution systems.
His approach proved effective. Under Cook, Apple expanded its global consumer base, strengthened its services business, developed its own powerful semiconductor chips and pushed further into wearables, payments, entertainment, health and enterprise technology.
During his tenure, Apple grew from a company valued at roughly $350 billion into a technology and services giant valued near $5 trillion, according to Business Today. Its growth made Apple not only a dominant consumer-electronics brand but also a central force in global financial markets, app development, digital media and semiconductor design.
The iPhone remained the company’s anchor, but Cook’s Apple became less dependent on a single device category. The company built large recurring-revenue businesses around the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Pay and subscription services. It also expanded its wearables lineup through the Apple Watch and AirPods, turning accessories into major businesses in their own right.
Cook also oversaw the transition of the Mac away from Intel processors toward Apple-designed chips, a move that gave the company greater control over performance, battery life, software integration and product timing.
That transformation has become especially important as artificial intelligence shifts demand toward more powerful and energy-efficient computing hardware.
The final product launch
Cook’s final days as chief executive have already reflected the central challenge awaiting his successor: Apple’s attempt to position its devices for the AI era.
On Aug. 25, Apple introduced a faster Mac mini and refreshed Mac Studio lineup aimed in part at consumers, developers and professional users seeking to run AI agents and large language models locally. Reuters described the announcement as likely to be Cook’s final major product launch as CEO.
The entry-level Mac mini begins at $899 and is available with Apple’s new M6 chip or M5 Pro processor. Apple said the M6 version, built on a 2-nanometer process, can offer up to four times faster AI performance and twice the graphics and storage speeds of its prior M4-powered model.
Apple also introduced updated Mac Studio models using its M5 Max and M5 Ultra chips. The machines are designed for developers, creative professionals and other high-performance users who need to run large models locally or connect multiple systems for more intensive AI workloads. Prices start at $2,499 for the M5 Max version and $5,499 for the M5 Ultra model.
The announcements highlight an important distinction in Apple’s AI strategy. Rather than compete solely through giant cloud-based systems, Apple has increasingly emphasized on-device computing, using custom chips in Macs, iPhones and other hardware to run AI features closer to the user.
That strategy could offer advantages in speed, privacy and device integration. But it also places pressure on Apple to keep producing hardware capable of handling advanced AI applications, even as competitors invest heavily in data centers, generative AI models and AI-powered software services.
Apple’s new Mac systems have found an audience among users looking to operate autonomous AI tools locally, Reuters reported. Demand has been strong enough that inventory at several Apple stores was depleted.
For Ternus, the challenge will be turning hardware strength into a broader AI narrative that customers understand and investors consider competitive.
John Ternus inherits a new test
Ternus, Apple’s longtime hardware chief, becomes CEO at a moment when the company’s core competence, building highly integrated devices, is both an advantage and a source of expectations.
His first major public event as chief executive will likely come quickly. Apple’s Sept. 9 launch is expected to introduce a new iPhone series and may include the company’s first foldable iPhone.
A foldable device would represent Apple’s entry into a market that Samsung Electronics has led for years. Analysts see foldable phones as a niche but potentially expanding category, particularly among consumers willing to pay premium prices for devices that combine smartphone portability with larger screens.
Reuters reported that Apple could ship more than 17 million foldable iPhones by 2027, citing research firm IDC. IDC also forecasts foldable smartphone shipments will rise 12.6% this year, even as global smartphone shipments are expected to decline 16.7%.
The prospect of a foldable iPhone matters for more than product design. It could create a new premium tier for Apple, support higher average selling prices and give consumers a reason to upgrade in a mature smartphone market.
Yet the product would arrive amid mounting cost pressures. Apple has raised prices on some Mac and iPad models as memory-chip prices rise because of demand from AI data centers. The company said in July that it faced “very significant” supply-chain shortages and expected those constraints to weigh on sales in the current quarter.
Ternus will therefore have to manage a difficult combination: protecting Apple’s high-end margins, maintaining product availability, navigating global component shortages and convincing customers that new devices offer meaningful improvements.
Cook’s unfinished agenda
Cook’s legacy is formidable, but his transition comes with unresolved questions.
Apple has delivered successful hardware under his leadership, particularly in watches, wireless earbuds, tablets, Macs and custom chips. But some of its newer bets have had less clear commercial outcomes.
The company’s Vision Pro headset generated widespread attention but remains a high-priced product aimed at a limited market. Apple also halted its long-running autonomous-vehicle initiative in 2024 after years of investment, showing the difficulty of pushing beyond its core device ecosystem.
The largest question now is AI.
Competitors including Microsoft, Google, Meta and OpenAI have made generative AI a central part of their product and business strategies. Apple has enormous advantages: a base of more than a billion active devices, powerful custom chips, trusted consumer brands and tight integration between software and hardware.
But it faces a different standard. Apple has built its reputation on polished, consumer-friendly technology rather than on releasing experimental software. Its AI products will be judged not simply on whether they work, but whether they are useful, private, reliable and deeply integrated into the everyday experience of using an iPhone, Mac, iPad, Watch or AirPods.
That can make the company’s measured approach a strength, or a risk if competitors establish the dominant AI platforms before Apple’s capabilities fully mature.
The latest Mac launches show that Apple is positioning its chips and desktops as tools for AI workloads. But the more visible test will be whether AI becomes a compelling reason for consumers to buy or upgrade Apple’s mass-market products.
Continuity, not a clean break
Cook is not leaving Apple. His move to executive chairman provides continuity at a company where leadership changes are rare and often carefully managed.
That continuity may reassure investors and employees, particularly as Apple prepares for a flagship iPhone launch and confronts policy, trade and supply-chain challenges across multiple countries. Cook has become one of the technology industry’s most prominent corporate diplomats, regularly meeting world leaders and navigating scrutiny over privacy, app-store rules, competition policy and manufacturing in China and elsewhere.
The division of responsibilities will matter. Ternus will take over day-to-day leadership of Apple, product direction and execution. Cook, as executive chairman, is expected to retain influence over high-level strategy and external relationships.
That arrangement could allow Apple to preserve institutional knowledge while giving Ternus room to shape the company’s next phase.
It also reflects the seriousness with which Apple appears to be managing the transition. The company is not replacing Cook during a quiet period. It is doing so on the eve of an iPhone event, amid an AI race, changing consumer demand and widespread uncertainty around global technology supply chains.
A new Apple era
Cook’s final day as CEO closes an era defined by scale, operational discipline and extraordinary financial growth. He proved that Apple could thrive after Jobs, even if it did so with a different style of leadership.
His tenure produced an Apple that is broader, wealthier and more structurally influential than the company he inherited. It also produced a company facing the difficult question every dominant technology business eventually confronts: what comes after the products that made it dominant?
For Ternus, that answer may depend on whether Apple can make AI feel as natural and indispensable as the iPhone once did.
The incoming CEO will begin with advantages that few leaders inherit: a powerful brand, a loyal customer base, deep cash resources, integrated hardware and software, and a product roadmap that includes a potential foldable iPhone.
But he will also face a market that expects more than annual device upgrades. Investors and consumers will want evidence that Apple’s next era can deliver innovation at the scale of its last.
On Tuesday, that task becomes John Ternus’ responsibility. Cook will remain nearby, no longer as Apple’s chief executive, but still as one of the company’s most important figures.