On September 1, 2026, Apple made John Ternus its CEO and a member of its board of directors. Tim Cook, who served as CEO for 15 years, became executive chairman and will help with certain areas of the business, including relationships with policymakers around the world. Apple's current Leadership page already reflects the new titles, so the transition announced in April has now taken effect.
Ternus is a hardware engineer who has spent 25 years at Apple. But the company he inherits does not make its money from product sales alone. In the most recent quarter, services accounted for 28.1% of revenue and generated 42.4% of gross profit. On top of that, the next-generation Siri AI is still in developer testing as he takes the job. Judging the new leadership will take a longer yardstick than the new products due in September.
A three-way structure: CEO, executive chairman, and independent oversight
On September 1, the board's makeup changed along with the CEO's title. Apple now has three distinct roles: a CEO who runs operations, an executive chairman who leads the board while supporting certain activities, and a lead independent director who represents the independent directors.
| Role | Person | Status from September 1 | Scope Apple has disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|
| CEO and director | John Ternus | New appointment | Responsible for Apple's management and operations; also joins the board |
| Executive chairman | Tim Cook | Moved from CEO | Supports certain areas of the business, including engagement with policymakers around the world |
| Lead independent director | Arthur D. Levinson | Moved from non-executive chairman | Represents the independent directors |
This arrangement lets Apple hand executive authority to Ternus while keeping the external relationships Cook built on the board side. Moving Levinson to lead independent director also creates a clear point of contact for independent oversight, separate from the executive chairman. However, Apple has described Cook's involvement only as support for "certain areas." It has not said whether he will help direct day-to-day operations or which matters will require his approval.
Apple carried out a similar succession on August 24, 2011, when Steve Jobs became chairman and Cook, then COO, became CEO and a director. The basic framework is the same: the outgoing CEO stays on as chairman and the new CEO joins the board. This time, though, Apple allowed a handover period running from the April announcement through the summer, and it also appointed a lead independent director. The 2026 transition preserves continuity from the Cook era by splitting it into distinct roles: execution, external relations, and independent oversight.
From 25 years in hardware to running the whole company
Ternus joined Apple's product design team in 2001 and was promoted to vice president of hardware engineering in 2013. In 2021 he joined the executive team as senior vice president of hardware engineering. He worked on multiple generations of iPhone and Mac, and on the launches of iPad and AirPods.
What stands out in his official biography is its emphasis on reliability and durability rather than the number of products launched. Apple cites among his accomplishments the development of recycled aluminum, the 3D-printed titanium in Apple Watch Ultra 3, and designs that make products easier to repair. Beyond the race for thinness and processing power, his remit has widened to cover everything from material choices to product lifespan.
Still, these achievements were built as head of hardware while Cook was CEO. Whatever products Apple unveils at its September 9 event, they will not be "Ternus products" conceived and brought to mass production in his first eight days. His record as CEO will begin to be judged only after changes in product priorities and resource allocation reach the market.
Services: 28.1% of revenue, 42.4% of gross profit
In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, Apple reported revenue of $109.417 billion, up 16% year over year and a record for a June quarter. Laying out revenue and cost of sales for products and services in the same quarter shows the earnings structure Ternus has inherited.
During Cook's tenure, annual revenue nearly quadrupled, from $108 billion in fiscal 2011 to more than $416 billion in fiscal 2025. Services grew into a business of more than $100 billion. Ternus also takes over a company that earns recurring revenue from more than 2.5 billion active devices.
| Segment | Revenue | Cost of sales | Gross profit (calculated) | Gross margin (calculated) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Products | $78.678 billion | $47.153 billion | $31.525 billion | 40.1% |
| Services | $30.739 billion | $7.494 billion | $23.245 billion | 75.6% |
| Total | $109.417 billion | $54.647 billion | $54.770 billion | 50.1% |
In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, services generated 42.4% of gross profit from 28.1% of revenue.
Gross profit is revenue minus cost of sales; it is not segment profit after allocating R&D and selling and administrative expenses. Even so, the figures show that a hardware-trained CEO cannot focus on products alone. Services such as the App Store, iCloud, and Apple Music are tied to more than 2.5 billion active devices and sustain a higher gross margin than product sales.
One more caution applies to the comparison. The company-wide gross margin of 50.1% was lifted by about 2 percentage points from tariff refunds. Apple does not disclose how those refunds are allocated between products and services, so the gap in the table cannot be treated as a permanent difference in profitability. In the next earnings report, it will be necessary to track gross margin excluding the refunds separately from growth in services revenue.
Siri AI is not yet generally available
Siri AI is another unfinished item Ternus has received. On June 8, 2026, Apple announced a new Siri with personal context awareness and on-screen awareness. As he takes office, however, only a developer test version is available, and a beta for general users on supported devices set to English is planned for later this year.
There are also limits on availability. According to Apple's information, Siri AI for iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS will not be offered in the EU at the initial stage, and it will not be available in China. The reach of Siri AI, which starts with English-language settings, is not the same as that of Apple Intelligence, which already supports multiple languages including Japanese.
For that reason, it is too early to judge the new CEO's AI strategy by the number of features shown at the announcement. Apple first needs to ship the beta on schedule this year and verify that features handling personal data work accurately in real-world conditions. Then comes the question of whether it can expand to languages other than English and to regulated regions. If Ternus's hardware experience matters, it will most likely be in making on-device and cloud processing work together across the product line. But any such result will have to be confirmed by actual delivery in the months ahead.
Look past the first eight days to the coming quarters
Apple will hold a special event called "Surprise and shine" on September 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific time. It falls eight days after Ternus becomes CEO, but the official announcement names neither the products nor the presenters. Who opens the event may offer a clue about how the new leadership wants to present itself, but that alone does not show that management policy has changed.
In the short term, it will be worth watching the pricing, availability regions, and supply timing of whatever Apple announces at the event. Over the next several quarters, the things to track are the Siri AI beta rollout and gross profit by products and services. Over the longer term, the question is how the reliability and repairability Ternus has emphasized are reflected in the design and support periods of new products.
If Cook can handle policy matters while Ternus concentrates on executing product and business strategy, the division of roles could help make the handover smooth. If the boundaries between the roles stay blurry, however, it may be hard for outsiders to see who owns key decisions. Apple's new leadership will take shape not through the staging of September 9 but through three track records: general-availability dates, the composition of earnings, and product lifespan.