Tim Cook said his successor has "the mind of an engineer" when Apple named John Ternus CEO in April. Three weeks into the job, Ternus has a record: Apple's stock briefly hit an all-time high at the open on September 22, 2026, per 9to5Mac. Shares sat roughly 9% above their close on the day Cook handed over.
9to5Mac calls it too early to credit Ternus with the rally, which is fair as far as it goes. But the hardware Apple showed at its Surprise and Shine event came out of the group Ternus ran as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. If that event is what investors are rewarding, the credit lands on him anyway, for his old job.
And the event does look like the turn. Apple's stock usually slips after its fall events, and this one arrived with shares down as much as 3% in the run-up. The reaction went the other way instead, positive on Wall Street and with the public, as 9to5Mac describes it. All of that followed Apple's last quarterly results, still under Cook, which had knocked the stock down about 10% before a partial recovery.
Ternus joined Apple in 2001 and had led hardware engineering since 2021 when Apple announced him as Cook's successor on April 20. The handover took effect September 1, with Cook, CEO for 15 years, staying on as executive chairman.
The first read on Ternus in the new job comes with the rumored October product lineup and the first earnings report with him as CEO.
