Apple's board of directors made it official Tuesday: after 15 years running the world's most valuable technology company, Tim Cook has stepped aside as chief executive, handing the job to hardware engineering chief John Ternus in a transition Apple says was unanimously approved and years in the planning.

Cook, who took over from Steve Jobs in 2011, remains at the company as executive chairman, a role that keeps him engaging with policymakers and advising Ternus during the handover. Apple's board first announced the succession plan back in April, giving markets and Apple's own ranks five months to prepare for a change most had assumed was still years away.

By the Numbers

Apple shares rose roughly 2.2% in Tuesday's session as the handover became official — a vote of confidence from investors who watched Cook grow the company from a stock-market value of about $350 billion when he took over to nearly $4 trillion today, a gain north of 2,200% over his tenure. The stock is up 37% over the past year alone.

Ternus, who joined Apple's product design team in 2001 straight out of the University of Pennsylvania with a mechanical engineering degree, worked directly under Jobs before rising to senior vice president of hardware engineering in 2021. He has overseen the engineering of the iPad, AirPods, Mac and Apple Watch lines, and joins Apple's board on the same effective date. Longtime board member Arthur Levinson shifts from non-executive chairman to lead independent director as part of the same reshuffle.

"JOHN TERNUS HAS THE MIND OF AN ENGINEER, THE SOUL OF AN INNOVATOR" — TIM COOK

Cook called Ternus "without question the right person to lead Apple" into its next chapter, while Ternus said in a statement he was "profoundly grateful for this opportunity to carry Apple's mission forward."

Analysts see the pick as a signal of where Apple is placing its chips. Boston College's Aleksandar Tomic told reporters Apple is staying in "the picks-and-shovels lane" — building its own chips and treating the iPhone as an access point for on-device AI rather than chasing a standalone chatbot product. American University's Babak Hafezi called the choice of a hardware chief "Apple's subtle way of emphasizing hardware innovation as a core strategy" as it tries to weave artificial intelligence into its devices rather than bolt it on.

The new CEO inherits a packed plate: a foldable iPhone in development, a long-delayed overhaul of Siri, mounting pressure to prove Apple's AI strategy can keep pace with rivals, and the same tariff and supply-chain headaches that dogged Cook's final years in the corner office. Cook, for his part, isn't disappearing — Apple says he'll stay closely involved through the handover and continue representing the company in Washington and other capitals as executive chairman.

Cook's 15-year run reshaped what Apple was built on. When he took the reins, the iPhone was still Apple's central product story; today, Services — the App Store, iCloud, Apple Music, AppleCare — is a business worth tens of billions of dollars a year on its own, and Cook's relentless focus on supply-chain logistics helped Apple weather chip shortages, pandemic factory shutdowns and an escalating US-China trade fight without missing a major product cycle. He is widely regarded as one of the most successful corporate successions in modern business history, following an act many on Wall Street doubted anyone could follow.