Apple CEO Tim Cook will step down in September after 15 years at the company\u2019s helm, Apple announced Monday. <\/span><\/p>\n Cook\u2019s transition to executive chairman of Apple\u2019s board of directors, while Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering John Ternus will take over as CEO effective September 1, 2026.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt has been the greatest privilege of my life to be the CEO of Apple and to have been trusted to lead such an extraordinary company,\u201d said Cook. \u201cI love Apple with all of my being, and I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with a team of such ingenious, innovative, creative, and deeply caring people who have been unwavering in their dedication to enriching the lives of our customers and creating the best products and services in the world.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Cook was hired in 1998 by the company\u2019s founder, Steve Jobs. Under his leadership, the company\u2019s market capitalization grew from $360 billion to $4 trillion. Like Cook, Ternus also worked under Jobs, joining Apple in 2001. Ternus says he\u2019s \u201chumbled to step into this role\u201d and promises \u201cto lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special palace for half a century.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Ternus will now be tasked with leading the helm as Apple enters the age of artificial intelligence. Apple\u2019s Siri chatbot has fallen behind compared to modern AI standards, such as Google Gemini, which Apple will partner with to power a new version of Siri coming this year. Apple\u2019s AI strategy revolves around chips that it designs itself rather than spending hundreds of billions of dollars on chips and data centers to build its own large language models.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n