The Ternus era

TL;DR: Tomorrow, John Ternus takes over as Apple’s CEO. He inherits what’s likely to be a larger leadership exodus amid a crucial AI push for the company—one that’s going surprisingly well so far.

What happened: Ternus is stepping into the chief executive role amid a gradual “changing of the guard” that’s been happening since 2024, per Bloomberg.

Case in point: Phil Schiller, one of the most influential leaders during both the Jobs and Cook eras, left his role leading the App Store and product events today—though he’s staying on at the company to work on “unspecified initiatives.” In the last few years, Apple’s COO also exited the company, and its CFO stepped into a new role. Further shakeups could come as other department heads potentially eye the exits. (Meanwhile, Cook—who’ll become executive chairman—will still handle Apple’s delicate relationship with President Donald Trump and the Chinese government.)

This leadership sea change comes at a time when some critics say Apple is no longer innovating like it used to—and it could have big implications for the company’s competitive edge in the AI race.

Apple’s revolving door: Among the exits Bloomberg mentions: The company’s chief hardware officer might be on his way out. Its senior VP of marketing could also be leaving, and the likely successors are either the head of AI marketing or head of iPhone marketing (which might be the perfect example of the crossroads Apple is facing).

Beyond the top leaders, Apple’s also been dealing with talent bleed. In the company’s recent trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI, Apple alleged that the company has now hired over 400 of its former employees. And, according to Bloomberg, Ternus was one of the execs who approved the lawsuit.

But don’t count Apple out yet: Despite this staff exodus, Apple’s strategy of focusing on its hardware advantage could still prove to be a winning move in the AI era. In his last earnings call as CEO, Cook described Apple’s push to run some AI tasks on device (like the revamped Siri does) as its “competitive weapon.”

It may already be working: AI devs and startups continue to snap up Apple hardware to train and run AI locally—and Nvidia now considers Apple to be its top rival in local AI, per The Information. Even top frontier labs are reportedly buying or renting Mac hardware, with OpenAI purchasing “tens of thousands” of Mac minis and Mac Studios for AI training.

Bottom line: Ternus’s first big test comes at Apple’s annual iPhone event on September 9, where we’ll likely see the first foldable iPhone—the biggest change to the device since its release. —WK