Apple generated $391 billion in revenue in its fiscal year 2025 — a fourth consecutive record — and on April 20, 2026, the board decided that the engineer who built every iPhone and iPad sold during that run should be the one to navigate whatever comes next. John Ternus, 50, senior vice president of hardware engineering since 2021, will become Apple's chief executive officer on September 1, replacing Tim Cook, who joined the company under Steve Jobs in 1998 and has led it since Jobs died in October 2011.
Cook will transition to executive chairman, a role focused on government relations, board-level strategy, and the diplomatic relationship-building that has been essential to Apple's China manufacturing operations and its negotiations with the European Union. For Ternus, the September 1 handover is also a promotion into a different species of problem. He has spent his career making things. His most urgent assignment will be fixing a software and services strategy.
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