Apple is moving up succession planning and would consider naming a new chief executive officer as early as next year, anonymous sources involved in the discussions told the Financial Times. The prospective handoff is not related to the company’s performance, sources say, and hardware engineering chief John Ternus has emerged as the most likely successor to Tim Cook.
The move would be the biggest change ever for the world’s most valuable public company, which has a market value over $4 trillion and one that has expanded well beyond iPhones into services, wearables and custom silicon. A decision in the first part of the year would enable a successor time to orient herself or himself before WWDC and the fall iPhone cycle, although timing could change as the board continues to finalize plans.
John Ternus Leads the Pack in Apple CEO Succession
The leading internal and external candidate, in the eyes of many inside and outside Cupertino, is John Ternus, the company’s senior vice president for hardware engineering. He has led signature hardware efforts across iPhone, iPad and Mac, helped the company move to Apple silicon in its computers and overseen an ambitious original content strategy. That transition has rewritten the performance-per-watt playbook from laptops through desktops and is arguably Apple’s most significant platform move since the original iPhone.
Ternus is also a different archetype from Cook. Where Cook’s legacy was built on a rock-solid operations base and mastery of the supply chain with services expansion, Ternus is a product-first leader who spends more time on stage walking through materials science, thermal envelopes, the camera system, or discussing the silicon–software handshake that cradles Apple’s ambitions around on-device AI.
Supporting the FT’s Ternus favorite line, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is also saying the focus is on him, though notes an announcement might not be imminent.
That split-screen perspective underscores just how jealously Apple guards its leadership transitions, with an institutional bias toward internal candidates and silent boardroom deliberations.
Other Contenders And The Board’s Playbook
Other grizzled executives are still part of the conversation. Covered for years by cameras as Cook’s key operational partner, Jeff Williams would be a safe continuity option for investors, slashers and gainful employment addicts. Craig Federighi, who oversees software engineering, is a high-profile public face for iOS and macOS and central to privacy and developer relations. The man behind Apple’s custom chips, Johny Srouji, who leads hardware technologies at the company, would be a signal of a silicon-centric future.
Apple’s board, led by Arthur Levinson, generally has favored stability and internal succession — as well as the company’s culture of cross-functional decision-making. That tradition reduces the likelihood that an outsider will be hired and favors leaders whose skill set includes stitching hardware, software and services together, as well as threading their way through regulation changes, diversifying a supply chain and intensifying competition on AI.
Why the Timing of Apple’s CEO Succession Matters
That would provide investors with clarity and also give the new chosen leader months to shape the story ahead of developer conference season and next fall’s iPhone launch window. It would also be in keeping with Apple’s rhythm of communications, where leadership updates are often combined with crisp strategic messages instead of being a reactive disclosure.
The stakes are high. Apple’s installed base now exceeds 2 billion active devices, services contribute an estimated 25% of revenue by some analysts’ accounts and the company is introducing on-device AI that relies heavily on customized silicon as well as tight integration. His successor as CEO will inherit a corporation firing on 12-cylinder financial cylinders but that hears skepticism about the velocity of visible, breakthrough innovation.
What a Ternus Era Might Look Like at Apple
If Ternus gets the big chair, then a product roadmap would focus on a hardware–AI co-design. That means doubling down on neural engines in all their products, embracing edge-based processing to promote privacy (and efficiency), and using Apple’s vertical stack to differentiate further than sheer model size. Look for ongoing focus on materials and durability — think titanium frames, advanced glass, improved repairability — coupled with camera and battery breakthroughs that take advantage of Apple’s silicon efficiency curve.
On operations, it is probable that Apple under Ternus would maintain Cook-era strengths: geographic diversification of manufacturing to India and Southeast Asia, deeper supplier co-investment, and resiliency against geopolitical shocks. But product cadence could increasingly be more closely tied to AI features, with hardware upgrades specifically tailored to unlocking new on-device intelligence and developer APIs.
Cook’s Legacy and the Hand-Off to a Successor
Cook’s expected departure caps a run emphasizing services at scale, wearables growth and spending discipline, with Apple Watch and AirPods emerging as category leaders while the App Store and subscriptions became recurring revenue generators.
Under his stewardship, Apple’s market value has grown more than 10 times over, despite suffering macro shocks and supply disruptions.
The next CEO will be judged by a different scorecard: how effectively Apple turns its ecosystem advantage into everyday AI, how it threads the needle of antitrust scrutiny around app distribution and payments, and whether the company can kick up another must-have hardware cycle without softening its position on privacy.
What to Watch Next in Apple’s Executive Succession
Things to watch for:
- Board filings that dirty up executive titles
- A shift as to who’s running what major product segment on stage
- An “org” tweaking around AI and silicon
And if Apple does make the switch earlier in the year, it’s worth assuming we would get a tightly choreographed announcement that emphasizes continuity, culture and clear product vision — key elements of an Apple transition when done on Apple’s own terms.
