Tim Cook steps down as Apple CEO on Sept. 1, handing the company to hardware chief John Ternus after 15 years in the role. Under Cook, Apple's market value climbed from a fraction of $1 trillion to $4.6 trillion, even as the company now faces catch-up pressure in artificial intelligence.
Tim Cook steps down as Apple CEO on Sept. 1, handing the reins to hardware chief John Ternus. The exit closes out 28 years at Apple, 15 of them as CEO, a stretch in which Cook rebuilt the company around supply-chain discipline rather than the product-first identity Steve Jobs gave it.
A record built on operations, not showmanship
According to MarketWatch, Jobs himself once described Cook as "not a product guy". But the numbers built under Cook's watch speak for themselves: Apple became the first company to cross $1 trillion, then $2 trillion and $3 trillion in market capitalization. Since Cook's tenure began, Apple shares have rallied over 2,200%. The company has also sold over 3 billion iPhones, and it has returned nearly $900 billion to shareholders through stock buybacks.
That growth traces back to Cook's roots as a supply-chain operator. He joined Apple in 1998 after leaving Compaq, immediately clearing warehouses of unsold inventory and trimming the supplier list. As CEO, he extended that discipline into manufacturing deals with Taiwan Semiconductor and memory suppliers.
The AI gap Cook leaves behind
Cook's operational playbook has struggled against one shift: artificial intelligence. While Google built Gemini into Android and Microsoft struck deals with OpenAI, Apple's AI-powered Siri overhaul, introduced in 2024, was plagued by repeated delays. Meta has also raided Apple's AI research team, poaching top talent.
The company's long-promised agentic Siri is due to arrive on Apple devices this September, partly powered by Google's Gemini model alongside Apple's own Foundation Models. It marks a departure from Apple's practice of owning its core technology rather than renting it. Cook has also pledged $600 billion toward Apple's U.S. supply chain.
Source: MarketWatch
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