In a move few saw coming, Apple has confirmed that CEO Tim Cook is preparing to step down, with a leadership change set for September 2026. While Cook will no longer run the company day-to-day, he isn’t leaving Apple entirely. Instead, he will shift into an executive chairman role on Apple’s board, where he’ll continue to represent the company in key capacities and provide guidance during the next era of Apple leadership.
This announcement signals one of the biggest transitions in modern Apple history. Cook has spent well over a decade at the helm of the world’s most valuable tech companies, and his departure from the CEO seat marks the end of a defining chapter shaped by the iPhone’s continued dominance, global expansion, and Apple’s unmatched operational scale.
According to Apple, John Ternus, the company’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, will take over as the next chief executive officer effective September 1, 2026. Cook will remain CEO through the summer, working closely with Ternus to ensure a smooth and structured handoff. Once he becomes executive chairman, Cook is expected to remain involved in select areas, including engagement with policymakers around the world—an increasingly important responsibility as Apple navigates regulation, privacy debates, and international market pressures.
John Ternus stepping into the top job won’t shock close Apple watchers. He has long been viewed as a leading internal candidate, and Apple’s recent organizational structure made that direction even clearer. By the end of 2025, Cook expanded Ternus’ responsibilities, giving him oversight of Apple’s design team in addition to his existing hardware leadership role. Inside Apple, design has historically been one of the most influential pillars of the company’s identity and product strategy, so putting that under Ternus’ umbrella was widely interpreted as a signal that Apple was preparing him for a broader leadership mandate.
Apple is also reshaping its hardware leadership bench as part of this transition. Johny Srouji, the executive most closely associated with Apple silicon and the company’s custom chip strategy, has been named Apple’s Chief Hardware Officer. That move reinforces how central in-house silicon has become to Apple’s competitive edge across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and beyond.
Meanwhile, Tom Marieb, Apple’s current Hardware VP responsible for Product Integrity, is set to take over John Ternus’ former role as head of engineering. In the updated structure, Marieb will report directly to Srouji, creating a clearer chain of command across Apple’s hardware engineering and execution pipeline.
Taken together, these changes outline Apple’s roadmap for continuity: a carefully staged CEO transition, Cook staying involved at the board level, and a strengthened hardware leadership team built around engineering, product integrity, and silicon. With September 2026 now set as the official turning point, Apple is entering a high-stakes but tightly orchestrated new chapter—one that will test how well the company can evolve while maintaining the operational excellence and product focus that defined the Tim Cook era.
