John Ternus Becomes Apple's Chief Executive on Tuesday With the Company Behind in Artificial Intelligence

John Ternus takes over as Apple's chief executive on Tuesday, Euronews reported, inheriting a company that dominates the premium smartphone market but sits behind competitors in artificial intelligence. Tim Cook steps down after 15 years in the role, a tenure the Financial Times assessed through the numbers on revenue, market value and product expansion.

Ternus arrives from hardware engineering, where he led the transition to Apple's own silicon. That background matters for the problem he faces. Apple's competitors have spent the past three years committing enormous capital to data centres and model training, and Apple has instead pursued on-device processing and partnerships. The approach preserves margins and privacy positioning, and it has left the company dependent on others for the most capable models.

The succession lands while investors are already questioning returns on artificial-intelligence spending across the sector. Apple presents the opposite risk profile to its peers. Where Nvidia's customers face scrutiny over whether their capital expenditure earns a return, Apple faces scrutiny over whether declining to spend has cost it a product generation.