Apple stated on Monday that John Ternus is succeeding Tim Prepare dinner as CEO, with Prepare dinner assuming the position of government chairman on Sept. 1.
Ternus, a senior vp of {hardware} engineering, will be part of Apple’s board of administrators when he turns into chief. Apple’s non-executive chairman Arthur Levinson will change into the iPhone-maker’s lead impartial director on that date.
“Prepare dinner will proceed in his position as CEO via the summer time as he works carefully with Ternus on a easy transition,” Apple stated in a press launch.
It is the primary CEO transition for Apple since Prepare dinner, now 65, succeeded Steve Jobs on the helm in 2011, shortly earlier than Jobs’ demise. Ternus will change into Apple’s eighth CEO.
“It has been the best privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to guide such a unprecedented firm,” Prepare dinner stated in an announcement. “I really like Apple with all of my being, and I’m so grateful to have had the chance to work with a workforce of such ingenious, modern, artistic, and deeply caring individuals who have been unwavering of their dedication to enriching the lives of our clients and creating the most effective services on this planet.”
Apple’s market cap elevated by roughly 24-fold on Prepare dinner’s watch, closing on Monday at $4 trillion. Prepare dinner took dwelling $74.6 million in complete compensation final yr, together with a $3 million base wage and tens of millions extra in inventory awards, based on current regulatory filings. Forbes estimates his web value at $2.2 billion.
Nonetheless, Apple faces quite a few challenges, together with an more and more advanced provide chain, geopolitical tensions, the Trump administration’s tariffs and a reminiscence crunch tied to hovering demand for AI chips.
Ternus, who’s about 15 years youthful than Prepare dinner, has been Apple’s {hardware} boss and has labored at Apple for about half his life, becoming a member of simply 4 years after he graduated from the College of Pennsylvania with a level in mechanical engineering. He is been extensively seen as subsequent in line, with current profiles in The New York Occasions and Bloomberg. His portfolio has included oversight of the {hardware} engineering groups behind the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods and Imaginative and prescient Professional.
Throughout his nearly 15-year tenure, Prepare dinner oversaw Apple’s bounce into wearable know-how, with the rollout of the Apple Watch, AirPods and the digital actuality headset Imaginative and prescient Professional, which has struggled to seek out market adoption since its launch in 2024.
Income nearly quadurupled underneath Prepare dinner, climbing to over $400 billion within the newest fiscal yr. Prepare dinner is finest identified in Silicon Valley as an operations guru, revamping Apple’s provide chain after becoming a member of in 1998 as an government vp of worldwide gross sales and operations. When he arrived, Apple was close to chapter.
Prepare dinner turned considered one of Jobs’ loyal lieutenants and was elevated to the position of Apple operations chief in 2005. Earlier than becoming a member of Apple, Prepare dinner lower his tooth within the tech trade spending 12 years working at IBM, serving to the corporate manufacture computer systems. He additionally spent a brief stint at former PC maker Compaq as a vp of company supplies. Prepare dinner bought his school diploma at Auburn College in 1982 and an MBA from Duke College in 1988.
For Ternus, maybe probably the most essential facet of his job will probably be pushing the corporate deeper into synthetic intelligence, the place it is lagged a lot of its megacap friends.
Whereas the iPhone 17 has carried out effectively, Apple has confronted criticism from traders and technologists for a perceived lack of cutting-edge AI know-how. That criticism grew after Apple final yr delayed an improve to its Siri voice assistant. In December, Apple revamped its AI management, changing its former chief with a Google veteran.
The corporate has stated it would launch an up to date model of Siri this yr based mostly on a Google Gemini AI mannequin.
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— CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.
WATCH: Apple executives Johnny Srouji and John Ternus on its rising chip enterprise.
