In the midst of the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, Apple takes a leap to get into the race. The Cupertino giant wants to stop dwelling on the past to survive in the future. The apple company announced this Monday the promotion of John Ternus as new CEO (CEO) replacing Tim Cook starting next September, who will serve as executive president with functions of institutional representation and public policies. Ternus, born in California 50 years ago, is unknown to the general public, but he had been circulating for months among the thousands of employees of the iPhone manufacturer as the favorite to replace Cook.
Wamsi Mohan, an analyst at Bank of America, believes that “the appointment of a new leader with a strong product profile and extensive experience in the design of hardware of the company aims to possible entry into a new era of devices, characterized by proposals driven by artificial intelligence and new formatsas wearablesincluding augmented reality glasses, and solutions for the smart home.” The truth is that analysts are beginning to outline the roadmap for Apple’s next boss or, at least, define their next challenges: managing the new world of AI, launching new products that re-identify Apple as a disruptive company more than one that sells consumer products. And all of this, without losing the efficiency achieved by Cookwith solid financial results that have made it one of the largest companies on the planet.
Precisely that was the debate at the top of Apple to choose its new leader: choose a visionary profile and an inventor like Steve Jobs, or an efficient manager, a specialist in developing supply chains and the services business, like Tim Cook has done. Finally, the giant has opted for an intermediate profile, perhaps closer to the personality of Cook than to the genius of Jobs.
Ternus se degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. They say that for his final year project, he designed a device that allowed quadriplegic people to control a mechanical feeding arm through head movements. Before joining Apple in 2001, worked as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systema virtual reality startup. He will reach the top of Apple after being the vice president responsible for hardwarethe physical design of the products, their durability and operational capacity. But it has also been a bridge with the software department, the systems that ensure that Apple devices are manageable, intuitive and responsive.
Cook simmered his decision about his replacement. He has been preparing Ternus for months. So his appointment has not surprised anyone within the company. At the end of 2025, it was already in charge of presenting the iPhone Air, the slim model of the popular smartphone, designed by the revolutionary Steve Jobs. Just a month ago, he was the master of ceremonies for the new MacBook Neo, Apple’s low-priced laptops, which represent a change in the firm’s strategy to expand its customer base in one of its most premium products. And a few weeks ago, when the company closed New York Central Station to celebrate its 50th anniversary, it was Cook and Ternus who starred at the party.
Rangy, swimming and car racing fan —he usually races his Porsche on circuits in Texas—Ternus’s first task will be to deny Apple’s delay in the AI race. Its assistant Siri was the test bed for introducing artificial intelligence tools into the group’s products, but it has been left out of date by the emergence of OpenAI, with its popular chatbot ChatGPT, or Claude from Anthropic, not to mention Gemini from Google, or Grok from xAI, the Tesla model. These companies have taken the lead and are investing huge amounts of money in developing their models, leaving Apple far behind.
The Californian multinational assures that this year it will present an update to Siri with new AI capabilities. To regain lost ground, it has teamed up with Google, which will allow it to use its Gemini model at the base of Apple Intelligence. Ternus will have to ensure that it does not take false steps in a business that is moving at breakneck speed and where the company is risking its future.
To the relief of the new CEO, Apple has more than 130,000 million dollars in cash to go shopping or accelerate one of your next products. A not insignificant amount, taking into account how the market is with AI investments.
Ternus’s name had been heard for months. At the end of last year, several senior executives of the company resignedand everyone began to think it was time for a change in management. The first in the bets was Ternus. His colleagues describe him as “a good guy”, “humble”, and remember that he gave up having an office because he preferred to sit with his subordinates. He’s a house guy. He has been at Apple for 25 years and knows all the nooks and crannies of the company after going through different departments. They say he exercises 21st century leadership, makes decisions, but He likes to skip the management ladder to listen to the workers’ opinions who are closer to product development. But of course, it is the version that comes out of one of the most opaque companies in Silicon Valley, which likes to boast of the secrecy that surrounds all its decisions, a culture implemented in the era of Steve Jobs.
TO Ternus can be attributed one of the most important decisions of the company in recent decades. During the pandemic, Apple decided to make its own processors for the Mac laptop environment, instead of chips from Intel, which was the traditional supplier. The change was a success, allowing us to have full control of the supply chain with more efficient chips. “It was one of the most profound, if not the most profound changes at Apple in our products in the last 20 years,” Ternus said of the semiconductor change.
Another of Ternus’ challenges has to do with the iPhone. The Apple smartphone sales have reached a new record this year thanks to the success of new models and the recovery of Chinese demand. But the journey of this device is running out without major technological innovations. The emergence of artificial intelligence threatens to change the use of these devices and Apple will have to take a step forward to come up with other uses for them. At the same time, it plans to present new devices for the home that can accompany this evolution.
There is some expectation in the market about the news presentation event next September, which coincides with the debut of Ternus as CEO. Analysts advance that It will be time for the presentation of the new foldable iPhoneas well as other innovations in the rest of the product ranges manufactured by the group. Ternus is known for having a global vision of the company and thinking about the ecosystem set of Apple products. But he will have to accelerate innovations without losing the affection of investors, who have seen how Cook has bathed them in gold with more than juicy dividends during the 15 years in which the executive born in Mobile (Alabama) has extended his mandate.
