April 20, 2026
Provided Image/Apple
John Ternus, a 1997 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, will take over as CEO of Apple on Sept. 1. Ternus has led the development of some of the company's most successful products and long served as senior vice president of hardware engineering. He'll succeed Tim Cook, who has been CEO since 2011.
Apple revealed Monday that John Ternus, a University of Pennsylvania graduate who has long served as the tech giant's head of hardware engineering, will succeed Tim Cook as CEO on Sept. 1.
Cook, who has led Apple since 2011, called Ternus a "visionary" who has played a pivotal role in a wide array of product launches during his 25 years with the company.
“John Ternus has the mind of an engineer, the soul of an innovator, and the heart to lead with integrity and with honor," Cook, 65, said in a news release.
Ternus, 50, emerged last year as a front-runner to succeed Cook. He played a pivotal role in transitioning Macs from using Intel's chips to adopting Apple's own in 2020, and he was a key decision-maker in setting price points for the inclusion of top-end features in newer iPhones. Ternus also has worked on major developments and updates to the iPad, Mac, AirPods, Apple Watch and the new MacBook Neo, whose $599 entry point has made the laptop a hot seller this year.
“Having spent almost my entire career at Apple, I have been lucky to have worked under Steve Jobs and to have had Tim Cook as my mentor," Ternus said in a statement provided by Apple. "It has been a privilege to help shape the products and experiences that have changed so much of how we interact with the world and with one another. I am filled with optimism about what we can achieve in the years to come."
Cook will become the executive chairman of Apple's board of directors, and Ternus will join the board upon becoming CEO. Arthur Levinson, Apple’s non-executive chairman for the past 15 years, will become its lead independent director.
Ternus, a California native, graduated from Penn's School of Engineering and Applied Science in 1997. His senior project involved designing a robotic feeding arm that quadriplegics could control using head motions.
Ternus also was an accomplished swimmer at Penn, winning the 50-meter freestyle and a 200-meter individual medley during a dual meet against Swarthmore in 1994. Records from Penn's athletics department list Ternus as an all-time letter winner for being among the most distinguished swimmers in school history. He remains closely connected to the Ivy League school, where he gave a keynote address for the engineering school's undergraduate commencement in 2024.
Ternus will be Apple's first CEO to come from a hardware background in more than three decades. He'll take the helm after a period of explosive growth under Cook, whose leadership saw the company's market cap surge from $350 billion to $4 trillion, CNBC reported. Only NVIDIA and Alphabet have a higher valuation.
Cook was long viewed as an operations leader who reinvented Apple's supply chain and logistics pipeline, both of which have faced pressure in recent years amid materials shortages, political headwinds and tariffs from the Trump administration. A global memory shortage spurred by the AI race could delay the launch of updates to some Apple products over the coming year, Bloomberg reported Monday.
Apple has trailed many of its competitors in AI development and is expected to invest in adding more capabilities to its Siri assistant later this year. The company plans to launch an updated version of Siri that relies on Google's Gemini AI model.
Cook's compensation totaled $74.6 million last year, including a $3 million base salary and stock awards, according to regulatory filings.
Before joining Apple, Ternus worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems.
"I am humbled to step into this role, and I promise to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century," Ternus said Monday.
