John Ternus succeeded Tim Cook as Apple's chief executive officer on September 1, 2026, after serving as Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. That evening, Ternus created a Weibo account where he posted "你好 / hello" in both Chinese and English, marking his debut on the platform [1, 2, 3, 4]. By the following morning between 7 and 9 a.m., his Weibo followers reached roughly 20,000 to 27,000, with wide engagement on his initial greeting [1, 2, 3, 4]. The new account follows only former CEO Tim Cook and Apple's Greater China Managing Director Jeff Ge [1, 2, 3, 4].
Tim Cook stepped down after 15 years as CEO and transitioned to the role of Executive Chairman on September 1, 2026. He declared, "I plan to stay long-term as Executive Chairman" [1, 8, 2, 3, 4, 9, 5, 6, 7]. During his tenure as CEO, Cook's total annual compensation peaked at approximately $74 million in 2025 [8, 9, 5, 6, 7].
Apple disclosed Ternus’ targeted total compensation for fiscal year 2027 in an SEC filing dated September 1. His package amounts to about $58 million, including a $3 million base salary and $55 million in stock awards. Around 75% of those stock awards are performance-based, tied to Apple's shareholder return versus S&P 500 companies, while the remaining 25% vest over four years on a time basis [8, 2, 3, 4, 9, 5, 6, 7]. For the remainder of fiscal 2026, Ternus will receive restricted stock units valued at approximately $2.5 million to reflect his partial-year CEO duties [8, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7].
Tim Cook’s expected compensation as Executive Chairman for 2027 is about $47 million, with a $2 million salary and $45 million in stock awards split evenly between performance and time-vesting units [8, 9, 5, 6, 7]. Apple has not revealed cash bonuses for either executive, which historically approximate twice the base salary [8, 5, 6].
On his first day as CEO, Ternus sent an internal letter to Apple employees previewing an exciting product launch scheduled for the coming week [2, 3, 4].
