Tim Cook’s new Tim Cook executive chairman role at Apple will pay a $2 million annual salary and include an equity award with a target value of $45 million, according to a regulatory filing, as the company locks in its longtime chief to handle relationships with governments around the world.
Cook handed the chief executive title to hardware chief John Ternus on Tuesday after 15 years running the iPhone maker. The handover triggers a broader reshuffle at the top of Apple Newsroom, which confirmed that Arthur Levinson, non-executive chairman for the past 15 years, will move to a new role as lead independent director on 1 September 2026.
Separately, 9to5Mac reported that Luca Maestri, who had served as Apple’s chief financial officer, stepped down from that post in January 2025 to take on a smaller role heading Corporate Services, underlining how extensively Apple’s senior leadership has been reorganised around the CEO transition.
Tim Cook executive chairman duties centre on policy, not politics
Apple said in April that Cook’s executive chairman brief would include ‘engaging with policymakers around the world.’ Cook himself drew the line clearly in a March interview with ABC’s Good Morning America. ‘What I do is I interact on policy, not politics,’ he said. ‘I focus on policy.’
That brief matters because Apple’s sprawling Asian supply chain sits directly in the path of Donald Trump’s push to bring manufacturing back to the United States, while also leaving the company exposed to tension between Washington and Beijing.
Cook spent years earning a reputation as a reliable interlocutor with Trump. The president explained the dynamic himself in 2019: ‘He’s the one that calls me,’ Trump told reporters when asked why the relationship worked. Cook’s argument at the time was that tariffs on China-made Apple products would disadvantage the company against South Korean rival Samsung.
From tariff threats to the Oval Office
The relationship was tested repeatedly. In February 2025, Apple announced it would spend $500 billion in the US over four years, including plans to hire 20,000 workers. Even so, Trump publicly criticised Apple in May 2025 as the company expanded iPhone production in India to reduce its dependence on China. Days after that exchange, the president threatened a tariff of at least 25% on iPhones manufactured outside the US.
Three months later, Cook was back in the Oval Office. He brought Trump a customised ‘Made in USA’ glass plaque on a 24-karat gold stand. Last August, Apple followed up with an additional $100 billion commitment to US manufacturing, bringing its planned domestic spend to $600 billion over four years. Trump, who had been preparing to impose a roughly 100% tariff on imported semiconductor chips, said companies building in the US would not pay the levy.
Cook also navigated Apple’s relationship with Beijing. Earlier this year he was among a group of US executives expected to accompany Trump on a trip to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, according to Bloomberg.
When Cook announced in April he would step down as chief executive, Trump recalled their first phone call on his Truth Social platform. ‘When I got the call I said, wow, it’s Tim Apple (Cook!) calling,’ the president wrote, a callback to when he had previously referred to Cook as ‘Tim Apple.’ Trump said Cook called him over the years ‘never too much’ and that he would help the Apple CEO where he could.
Cook leaves the CEO post with Apple’s market capitalisation having grown from roughly $347 billion to $4.6 trillion during his 15-year tenure, a period in which he took over shortly before co-founder Steve Jobs died in 2011.
His salary as executive chair takes effect 26 September.
