There had been speculation about Cook’s departure in recent months. In an era when every other big tech company has poured significant resources into developing advanced AI, Apple is widely considered a laggard. Turnus’s old job will be handed over to Johnny Sruzzi, who was promoted from senior vice president to chief hardware officer on Monday. Sruzzi has played a key role in the development of Apple’s custom computer chips.
Cook’s legacy at Apple will be tied to the company’s tremendous financial growth over the past two decades. When he took over as CEO in 2011, the company’s market capitalization was approximately $350 billion; It’s now north of $4 trillion. According to the company, more than 2.5 billion people worldwide used Apple devices as of January.
During Cook’s tenure, Apple launched both the Apple Watch and AirPods, which were key anchors for the company’s accessories unit, which generated nearly $36 billion in revenue during the last fiscal year. Its services business, which keeps consumers locked into Apple hardware and now accounts for more than a quarter of the company’s total sales, grew from about $3 billion a quarter at the end of 2011 to nearly $30 billion in the last three months of last year.
But some projects developed under Cook, such as Apple’s self-driving car, were less successful. Apple Vision Pro, the company’s late entry into virtual reality headsets, was widely considered too expensive and failed to gain traction. While Cook efficiently managed Apple’s production cycles during the global pandemic and rapidly diversified the company’s supply chain in the face of tariff pressure, Cook’s legacy is likely to be that of an operations master rather than a product innovator.
Cook’s dealings with China are also a part of his operational legacy, as China has become not only an important center of manufacturing, but also an important consumer market for Apple. Until last year, Apple held the top position in smartphone market share in the country, with an estimated 22 percent. However, in recent years, Apple has faced scrutiny over allegations by some lawmakers that its contractors are employing forced labor from Uyghur Muslims. Apple also reportedly tried to lobby against some provisions in the 2020 bill that would have prevented forced labor in China.
Like many tech CEOs, Cook has expressed sympathy for President Donald Trump since Trump’s return to the White House – sometimes even standing with a grim face next to the president at public events. Cook personally donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration in early 2025. He also appeared at Trump’s inauguration along with Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg. In a strange display of loyalty last August, Cook presented Trump with a custom Apple plaque, encased in a 24-karat gold base. He also attended a private screening melania A documentary at the White House, hours after nurse Alex Pretti was shot to death by a federal immigration agent during a street protest.
In 2014, the normally private Cook announced in an op-ed in Bloomberg Businessweek that he was gay. At the time, Cook wrote that being gay gave him “a deeper understanding of what it means to be a minority” and revealed the challenges that people in other minority groups deal with every day. His experience, Cook wrote, had taught him “to rise above adversity and bigotry.” He also cited concerns about children being bullied as a motivation for speaking out about his experiences.
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