Tim Cook will step down as Apple CEO and hand reins over to the iPhone maker’s hardware leader
Posted Apr 20, 2026 06:11:54 PM.
Last Updated Apr 20, 2026 06:23:09 PM.
Apple CEO Tim Cook is stepping down from the job that he inherited from the late Steve Jobs, ending a nearly 15-year reign that saw the company’s market value soar by more than $3.6 trillion during an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity.
Cook, 65, will turn the CEO duties to Apple’s head of hardware engineering, John Tenus, on September 1 while remaining involved with the Cupertino, California, company as executive chairman. That’s similar to the transitions made by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Netflix’s Reed Hastings after they ended their highly successful tenures as CEO.
Although he never shook the perception that he lacked Jobs’ vision, Cook leveraged the popularity of the iPhone and other breakthroughs orchestrated by his predecessor to lift Apple to heights that seemed unfathomable when it was on the brink of bankruptcy during the mid-1990s.
Michael Liedtke, The Associated Press
