According to Global Views Monthly (gvm.com.tw), Tim Cook — CEO for 15 years — has formally announced he will step down on September 1, 2026, moving into the role of executive chairman. He is handing the reins to John Ternus, currently senior vice president of hardware engineering.
Asked by The Wall Street Journal what advice he would give Ternus, Cook said, "I would say: Be yourself," Global Views Monthly reported. The same report recounted a 2009 episode in which Cook, hoping to save a gravely ill Steve Jobs, offered to donate part of his own liver — an offer Jobs refused outright: "No! I'll never let you do that!"
Ming-Chi Kuo (郭明錤), the Tianfeng International Securities analyst Global Views Monthly described as the world's foremost Apple analyst, offered his own read on the succession: "Jobs was personally closer to Jony Ive, so why did he hand this responsibility to Cook?" Kuo said the answer was that Jobs believed Cook could lead Apple forward steadily.
Global Views Monthly's numbers trace the scale of Cook's tenure. Apple's market capitalization rose from $350 billion when he took over to $4 trillion. In the second quarter of 2026 alone, revenue reached $111.2 billion — more than Apple's entire annual revenue in the year Cook became CEO, per the outlet. Years before he became CEO, while running Apple's operations between 1998 and 2000, Cook cut the company's inventory days from 30 down to 2. Apple Pay, meanwhile, now counts more than 818 million users worldwide.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Apple market cap growth under Cook | $350B → $4T | gvm.com.tw |
| Apple Q2 2026 revenue | $111.2B | gvm.com.tw |
| Inventory days cut (1998–2000) | 30 days → 2 days | gvm.com.tw |
| Apple Pay global users | 818 million+ | gvm.com.tw |
| Apple market cap (vs. NVIDIA) | $4.88T | inside.com.tw |
| NVIDIA market cap (same day) | $4.86T | inside.com.tw |
| NVIDIA peak market cap (Oct. 2025) | $5T | inside.com.tw |
| Micron market cap (May 2026) | $1T | inside.com.tw |
According to Inside (inside.com.tw), Apple overtook NVIDIA to reclaim the title of world's most valuable company after NVIDIA shares fell 3.5%, shrinking its market cap to about $4.86 trillion, while Apple's shares held steady at a market cap of $4.88 trillion. Inside noted this marks the first time Apple has retaken the top spot since April of the previous year.
The swap sits inside a broader run of AI-chip market cap milestones that Inside also documented: NVIDIA made history in October 2025 as the first company to cross a $5 trillion market cap, and memory chipmaker Micron — riding demand for AI infrastructure memory — crossed the $1 trillion market cap threshold in May 2026.
Inside reported that Apple overhauled its long-delayed Siri voice assistant last month, an effort aimed at closing the gap with rival tech companies and AI startups.
Separately, Inside reported that China's Cyberspace Administration approved a partnership between Apple and Alibaba to integrate Alibaba's Tongyi Qianwen (通義千問) model into iOS and other Apple operating systems, enabling Apple to offer generative AI services within China.
Cook's record includes acknowledged failures. Global Views Monthly reported that Cook called the 2012 launch of Apple Maps "the first real big mistake" of his tenure, saying: "The product wasn't ready, but we thought it was."
The outlet also detailed Project Titan, Apple's self-driving car initiative, which Cook oversaw for roughly a decade with about $10 billion invested, aiming to produce an Apple Car. The project was terminated in 2024.
Taken together, the two outlets' reporting places Cook's exit at a specific inflection point rather than a quiet handoff. Global Views Monthly's figures show a tenure defined by scale — market cap growth from $350 billion to $4 trillion, quarterly revenue of $111.2 billion, 818 million Apple Pay users — alongside two acknowledged setbacks, Apple Maps and the canceled Titan project. Inside's reporting shows Apple's $4.88 trillion market cap edging past NVIDIA's $4.86 trillion only after NVIDIA had already set the $5 trillion high-water mark in October 2025, with Micron's $1 trillion milestone in May 2026 underscoring how AI infrastructure demand is reshaping the same market cap rankings Apple just re-entered. Cook's succession announcement and the Siri overhaul and Alibaba/Tongyi Qianwen deal that Inside reported all land in the same window — the details of how those AI moves relate to Apple's market cap move are not specified in either report.
September 1, 2026, according to Global Views Monthly. He moves into the role of executive chairman.
John Ternus, currently senior vice president of hardware engineering, according to Global Views Monthly.
Apple's market cap reached $4.88 trillion versus NVIDIA's $4.86 trillion after NVIDIA shares fell 3.5%, according to Inside.
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