Apple’s John Ternus will run one of the world’s most powerful companies; the work is a mining area

During his 15-year reign as Apple’s top banana, Tim Cook has quickly become famous, unimaginably powerful, and extremely wealthy. Most estimate Cook’s current net worth to be around $3 billion, assets he has accumulated largely through performance-based equity awards as Apple’s market has grown more than 11 times on his watch to nearly $4 trillion.

But the job comes with a lot of baggage, too. Cook has had to navigate two Trump administrations and one Biden administration — each with its own stance on Big Tech, China, and regulation. Cook also faced off against the FBI over encryption, spent years in court defending the App Store against allegations that Apple made the iPhone an illegal monopoly, and made a deal to stay in the Chinese market that attracted unwanted attention from human rights groups. Not only that, Cook watched the company’s ambitious hardware bet – the Vision Pro headset – bomb with consumers. That doesn’t mean anything with AI, where the outcome is still unknown. Incoming CEO John Ternus inherits it all.

Here’s a rundown of some of Cook’s biggest fights over the years:

Surely we all remember that FBI hacking battle of 2016? After a mass shooting at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California, the FBI demanded that Apple help unlock the gunman’s iPhone. Cook refused, arguing that encryption is the only important measure against exposing people’s private data and that forcing them to break it would set a dangerous precedent. The standoff eventually ended when the FBI found another way in, but it cemented Apple’s identity as a secretive company and set off years of conflict with governments around the world. Ternus will inherit that identity and the responsibilities that come with it.

The App Store’s antitrust battles haven’t been a walk in the park for Cook, either. Epic Games sued Apple in federal court over its requirement that apps use Apple’s in-app payment system and its 30% cut of sales (and when the judge pressed Cook on why users couldn’t just pay developers directly at lower rates, his answers did nothing to dissuade him). Apple was so successful in 2021, the court refused to call it a monopoly, but it was ordered to allow developers to connect to external payment options. It complied in a very narrow sense, charged a 27% commission on those foreign purchases (some discount!), and the courts found it in contempt. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that decision in late 2025, and after a request for a retrial was denied last month, Apple is now preparing to appeal to the Supreme Court, which had already declined to hear its previous appeal. A lower court still has to decide what amount Apple can charge.

The epic saga is just the front in a wider war of infidelity. The US Department of Justice sued Apple in March 2024, accusing it of illegally dominating the smartphone market by restricting third-party apps and device developers — think competing smartwatches, digital wallets, and messaging services — in ways that make it difficult for users to switch from the iPhone. A judge rejected Apple’s request to dismiss that case, meaning it could drag on in the courts for years. And just this week, Apple revealed that it faces a fine of about 38 billion in India, where the regulators found it guilty of abusing its dominant position in the application market and said that Apple refused to provide the necessary financial information – a case made more complicated by the fact that Apple’s market share in India is still modest, about 9%, which gives you an unusual angle to contradict the findings. Ternus inherits this battle over streaming, with the App Store’s revenue model under direct legal threat.

China has been an ongoing and increasingly uncomfortable balancing act, too. Cook built Apple’s manufacturing operations around Chinese chains, making the company increasingly dependent on a country whose government has grown assertive and unpredictable over time. He also made an uneasy concession to operate in the Chinese market – notably removing VPN apps from the Chinese App Store and storing Chinese users’ iCloud data on government-controlled servers. Cook proved adept during Trump’s first term at protecting Apple from the costs and risks of a trade war, in part by cultivating a personal relationship with Trump — who commented on news of Cook’s retirement that “amazing guy!” Apple has already signed that Cook will continue to help Ternus negotiate the country and politics as the executive chairman – acknowledging that this relationship is a sham and that Cook’s institutional experience remains very important.

Yet AI is perhaps the most immediate and unsolved challenge that Ternus presents. Apple’s AI chief, John Giannandrea, is officially leaving the company this month following multiple delays in the release of AI-powered Siri. Instead of relying solely on its own models, Apple turned to both Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to power some aspects of Apple Intelligence. Long-time market research analyst Bob O’Donnell told Reuters on Monday that Ternus’ biggest challenge may be “finding a better AI story and offering together that relies more on Apple’s capabilities and less on third parties,” although some argued that the company would look wiser after waiting out the expensive competition currently playing out among today’s big AI outfits.

Finally, Apple’s biggest profit is widely under-discussed but meaningful. Ternus inherits a largely restructured leadership team following the recent departures of several Apple executives over the past year at low cost, including its longtime COO, general counsel, and head of UI design. It’s a challenge and an opportunity that will require him to put his own stamp on things quickly.

The thread that connects most of these challenges is that Cook’s greatest skill was his ability to manage complex relationships with governments and partners while keeping the business popular. Whether Ternus has that same ability, or whether Cook’s continued presence as executive chairman is intended to fill any gaps there, may prove among the more interesting questions of the transition.

The most frightening question hanging over Ternus’ time is whether the world that made Apple the world’s most valuable company could end. Many industry observers believe that AI agents will be the main way people use and services, providing the App Store and 30% of it cut the remote memory. Couple that with the possibility of forcing new hardware that destroys the iPhone’s hold on our lives, like whatever OpenAI has in the works, and Ternus could find himself running more than a complicated relationship and lawsuit.