John Ternus became Apple’s chief executive on September 1, 2026, succeeding Tim Cook after his 15-year tenure. As a longtime hardware engineering leader, Ternus takes over a company widely seen as trailing rivals such as Google and OpenAI in frontier AI model development. Analysts expect him to lean on product and silicon integration rather than a standalone frontier model, while immediately facing scrutiny at Apple’s September 9 event, where the company is expected to unveil its first foldable iPhone.
