Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) latest scoop: Cook may retire as early as next year, Ternus will take over to lead the AI era.

According to reports from informed sources cited by the media, Tim Cook, who has been the CEO of Apple Inc. for 14 years, is likely to step down as early as next year, and 50-year-old John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering at Apple Inc., is seen as the most likely successor. Ternus joined Apple Inc.'s product design team in 2001 and has since been involved in the engineering design of almost all major hardware products of the company. It is reported that he has also played important roles at several Apple Inc. themed events, including the launch of the new iPhone Air. Apple Inc. (AAPL.US) has a tradition of announcing major personnel changes at the end of January after the financial report. By convention, if a new CEO is announced early next year, the new management team can complete the transition before the WWDC in June and the iPhone release event in September. Informed sources emphasize that this succession plan has long been in place and is not related to the current performance of Apple Inc. If appointed, Ternus will take the helm at a critical moment in Apple Inc.'s business evolution. Despite the huge success brought by products like the iPhone and AirPods over the past two decades, the company's breakthroughs in artificial intelligence are significantly lagging behind competitors. Compared to Meta, Amazon.com, Inc., Alphabet, and Microsoft Corporation, Apple Inc.'s investment in AI is significantly lower, and analysts have criticized the company this year for lacking a clear AI strategy. However, investors have recently started to express concerns about the massive spending on AI by companies like OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft Corporation, and Apple Inc.'s stock has become a "safe haven" in the tech sector. Although Apple Inc. has approved a "multi-billion dollar" budget for launching a self-developed large-scale cloud model in 2026, there are reports that Apple Inc. is still evaluating whether to directly adopt OpenAI or Anthropic models to power the new version of Siri. Apple Inc. announced earlier this year that the new version of Siri, originally scheduled for release in 2025, would be delayed until 2026 or later due to a series of technical challenges. Meanwhile, since January this year, Apple Inc. has lost several key AI executives, many of whom have been poached by Meta, including Ruoming Pang, who was in charge of Apple Inc.'s base model and core generative AI team. Apple Inc. also faces competition from former executives within the company. In May of this year, OpenAI acquired a startup called io for about $6.5 billion, bringing in former Apple Inc. chief designer Jony Ive to collaborate on AI devices. Ive, who was involved in the design of the iPhone, iPod, and iPad, is one of the key figures in Apple Inc.'s hardware aesthetics. Cook, who just turned 65 this month, took over the reins from Steve Jobs in 2011, and under his leadership, Apple Inc.'s market value has increased from $350 billion to $4 trillion, achieving phenomenal growth. Data shows that in 2018, Apple Inc. became the first publicly traded company in the world to surpass a market value of $1 trillion, and in 2022, it was the first to reach $3 trillion. Regardless of who ultimately takes over as CEO, the successor is likely to come from within Apple Inc. Cook has previously stated that the company prefers internal promotions and has developed a "very detailed succession plan." This article is reprinted from "Cai Lian Society", author: Niu Zhanlin; GMTEight editor: Yan Wencai.