John Ternos, chairman of Apple, will run one of the most powerful companies in the world; The job is a minefield

Over his 15 years as Apple’s top banana, Tim Cook became instantly recognizable, powerful beyond belief, and incredibly wealthy. Most estimates peg Cook’s current net worth at about $3 billion, assets he has amassed largely through performance-based stock awards, as Apple’s market value has grown more than 11-fold on his watch to nearly $4 trillion.

But the job comes with a lot of baggage, too. Cook also had to navigate between two Trump administrations and one Biden administration – each with its own stance on Big Tech, China, and regulation. Cook also faced the FBI over encryption, and spent years in court defending the App Store against accusations that Apple turned the iPhone into an illegal monopoly, making concessions to stay in the Chinese market that attracted a lot of unwanted attention from human rights groups. And not least, Cook has watched the company’s most ambitious hardware bet — the Vision Pro headset — attract consumers. This says nothing about artificial intelligence, where the outcome is still unknown. Incoming CEO John Ternos inherits all of it.

Here’s a walkthrough of some of Cook’s biggest battles over the years:

Surely we all remember the FBI’s 2016 encryption battle? After a mass shooting at a holiday gathering in San Bernardino, California, the FBI asked Apple to help unlock the gunman’s iPhone. Cook rejected this, arguing that encryption was the only useful countermeasure against exposing people’s private data and that forcing it to be broken would set a dangerous precedent. The standoff eventually ended when the FBI found another way in, but it cemented Apple’s identity as a privacy company and sparked years of tension with governments around the world. Ternus will inherit that identity and the obligations that come with it.

The App Store antitrust wars 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 cut their sales by 30% (and when the judge pressed Cook on why users couldn’t pay developers directly at lower rates, his answers did little to deflect her doubts). Apple largely prevailed in 2021, with the court declining to call it a monopoly, but ordering that developers be allowed to link to third-party payment options. It complied in the narrow sense of the word, charging a 27% commission on those overseas purchases (some discount!), and the courts found it to be in contempt. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in late 2025, and after denying the rehearing request last month, Apple is now preparing to petition the Supreme Court, which had already declined to hear its previous appeal. The lower court must still determine what fees Apple can actually charge.

The epic saga is just one front in a broader antitrust war. The US Department of Justice sued Apple in March 2024, accusing it of illegally controlling the smartphone market by restricting developers of third-party apps and devices – such as smartwatches, digital wallets and competing messaging services – in ways that make it difficult for users to move away from the iPhone. A federal judge denied Apple’s request to dismiss this case, which means it could continue in the courts for years. And just this week, Apple revealed it faces a potential $38 billion fine in India, where regulators have found it guilty of abusing its dominant position in the app market, and says Apple has refused to hand over requested financial data — an issue complicated by the fact that Apple’s market share in India is still relatively modest, around 9%, giving it an unusual angle to challenge the findings. Ternus inherits this fight at the midpoint, with the App Store’s revenue model under direct legal threat.

China has also been a constant and increasingly uncomfortable balancing act. Cook built Apple’s manufacturing operation around Chinese supply chains, making the company highly dependent on a country whose government has become more assertive and less predictable over time. It also made uncomfortable concessions to operating in the Chinese market — most notably removing VPN apps from the Chinese App Store and storing Chinese users’ iCloud data on state-controlled servers. Cook proved adept during Trump’s first term at protecting Apple from tariffs and the risks of a trade war, in part by cultivating a personal relationship with Trump — who commented upon news of Cook’s retirement that “Incredible manApple has already indicated that Cook will continue to help Ternus negotiate the geopolitical terrain as CEO — an acknowledgment that these relationships are difficult and that Cook’s institutional knowledge remains highly valuable.

However, AI is perhaps the most pressing and as-yet-unsolved challenge facing Ternos. Apple’s AI chief, John Giannandrea, is officially leaving the company this month after numerous delays in the rollout of its more capable, AI-powered Siri system. Instead of relying solely on its own models, Apple turned to both Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to power some Apple Intelligence features. Longtime market research analyst Bob O’Donnell told Reuters on Monday that Ternus’ biggest challenge will likely be “getting a better AI story and making offerings that rely more on Apple’s own capabilities and less on third parties,” though some have argued that the company will look smarter in hindsight to wait out the expensive competition currently taking place among today’s biggest AI companies.

Last but not least, Apple’s executive turnover more broadly is less discussed but meaningful. Ternus inherits a leadership team that has been largely rebuilt following the recent departures of several other Apple executives over the past year, including its COO, general counsel and longtime head of user interface design. It’s a challenge and an opportunity that will require him to put his own stamp on things relatively quickly.

The dividing line that connects most of these challenges is that Cook’s greatest skill has been his ability to manage complex relationships with governments and partners while maintaining business continuity. Whether Ternos is just as skilled, or whether Cook’s continued role as CEO is meant to cover any gaps there, may be among the more interesting questions about the transition.

The most frightening question hanging over Ternos’ tenure is whether the world that made Apple the most valuable company on the planet could actually end. Many industry observers believe that AI agents will become the primary way people interact with services, making the App Store and its 30% share just a distant memory. Add to that the possibility of new hardware eroding the iPhone’s grip on our lives, like anything OpenAI is working on in the pipeline, and Ternus could find itself maneuvering through much more than just complex relationships and issues.