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On 1 September 2026, a new era officially began for the Cupertino technology giant. John Ternus officially took over as Apple’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), succeeding Tim Cook after 15 years of remarkable leadership. Cook will not leave the company behind, but will serve as Executive Chairman of the board.
The handover marks the culmination of a carefully prepared long-term succession plan, unanimously approved by the board last April. With this move, Apple is relying on strong internal continuity and a leader with a deeply engineering-focused outlook to steer its technological future.
Education and rise: an engineering background
After graduating in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997, Ternus began his career at Virtual Research Systems, working on virtual-reality headsets before joining Apple in 2001. His career in Cupertino follows a textbook engineering path: from his early work on Apple Cinema Displays in the first half of the 2000s to growing responsibilities in hardware design. Promoted to a leadership role in the division in 2013 under Dan Riccio, in 2020 he was given responsibility for iPhone hardware. In 2021 he became Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, fully replacing Riccio and reporting directly to Tim Cook. Ternus played a crucial role in the development of Apple Silicon chips and the Mac’s transition away from Intel processors.
His visibility grew exponentially after he took charge of Product Design in January 2026 and unveiled the MacBook Neo in March. This gradual concentration of responsibilities fuelled speculation about his succession, which was subsequently confirmed. Unlike Tim Cook, a manager focused on supply-chain management, margins and services, Ternus stands out for his meticulous attention to hardware and technological innovation, while retaining a pragmatism that protects corporate strategy and profitability, as illustrated by the decision in 2018 to reserve the LiDAR sensor for iPhone Pro models.
Leadership and products
Ternus’s résumé reflects the evolution of Cupertino’s most iconic products over the past 25 years. As Senior Vice President, he led hardware engineering across all the main categories: from the beginnings and development of the first generations of iPad and AirPods, through the many iterations of Mac, Apple Watch and iPhone, to overseeing recent, complex projects such as Apple Vision Pro and MacBook Neo.
According to reporting by the New York Times, his internal reputation is excellent: engineers appreciate his approachability and direct manner. In the past, he even declined a private executive office so that he could continue working at the lab bench. The main unknown concerns his public profile in global diplomacy: while Cook skilfully handled complex geopolitical negotiations and antitrust pressures in the United States and Europe, Ternus has so far remained focused on the product. In his new formal role as Executive Chairman, Cook himself will act as a political “shield”, allowing Ternus to concentrate fully on innovation.
John Ternus as Apple CEO: the future
Ternus inherits a financially robust company, buoyed by a stock price up 17% since the start of the year and quarterly revenue of $109.42 billion, thanks to the success of the iPhone 17 ($54.25 billion) and Mac ($10.35 billion) ranges. However, the new leadership will face immediate challenges: a slowdown in Services, declining iPad performance and below-expectation revenue in China.
The real test will be generative artificial intelligence, a field in which Apple is lagging behind its competitors. Ternus will have to lead both the integration of new features into current devices and the potential development of hardware designed for AI from the outset. The annual launch event was held on 9 September at the Steve Jobs Theater: alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max and the possible debut of a foldable iPhone, analysts and markets were focused on the relaunch of Siri and the Apple Intelligence system.
