Apple Has a New Boss. Meet John Ternus, the Engineer Who Has to Prove He’s More Than a Safe Pair of Hands

Apple confirmed that CEO Tim Cook will step down on September 1, 2026, with hardware engineering chief John Ternus taking over after Cook's 15-year tenure that grew Apple into a $4 trillion company. Ternus, 51, has been instrumental in developing Apple's major products and led the successful Mac transition to Apple Silicon chips. He inherits significant challenges, particularly Apple's struggles with artificial intelligence where the company has lagged competitors and recently outsourced AI features to Google's Gemini after internal setbacks.