Tim Cook dinner’s tenure as CEO at Apple, which is coming to a close September 1, will possible be outlined by operational effectivity and monetary progress, ushering Apple into its trillion-dollar period.
However his most vital achievement could be in doubling down on Apple’s companies enterprise, which incorporates iCloud, the App Retailer, Apple Music, Apple TV+, Information+, and extra. It’s the subscription layer on high of iOS, and virtually the entire service apps are tightly built-in with Messages, the glue that retains individuals stuck to their iPhones.
Throughout Apple’s most recent earnings report, for the quarter ending December 2025, its companies enterprise reached an all-time income report of $30 billion. This was a 14 p.c soar from the identical quarter the 12 months prior; companies was additionally an even bigger money-making enterprise than Mac, iPad, Apple Watch, Residence, and different equipment mixed. For the whole lot of fiscal 12 months 2025, Apple companies generated greater than $109 billion for Apple, once more, up 14 p.c from 2024.
When Cook dinner first took over as CEO in 2011, “companies” weren’t even damaged out right into a separate income class, though, for proxy, iTunes was producing round $6 billion yearly.
Because the analyst Ben Thompson points out, among the foundation-laying work for Apple’s companies predated Cook dinner’s time period as CEO. The App Retailer launched in 2008, the 12 months after Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, and it was Jobs’ foresight to cost as much as a 30 p.c “tax” on paid apps and in-app purchases. Jobs loyalists Phil Schiller, who now serves as an Apple “fellow,” and Eddy Cue, who’s the corporate’s senior vp of companies, have been the driving forces behind this technique. (Schiller is the exec who famously changed the developer tax—barely—in 2016, to make it extra favorable to app makers, in response to complaints that Apple was unfairly squeezing builders.)
But it surely was beneath Cook dinner that Apple transitioned from the world’s hottest client {hardware} firm to one of many world’s strongest platform firms. And that was due largely to companies. The query now could be whether or not Apple government John Ternus, who will quickly take the helm as CEO, can lengthen Apple’s platform into the generative AI period. Thus far, Apple’s method to superior AI—particularly generative AI, since Apple has wielded machine studying in all types of intelligent methods for years now—has been mystifying.
Apple’s digital assistant Siri, thought of modern when it first launched in 2011, has been suffering from errors, limitations, and basic haplessness. In 2024 the corporate introduced “Apple Intelligence,” a brand new moniker for AI options that may be embedded into merchandise like Siri. However after postponing the release of an AI-enhanced Siri in 2025, Apple executives engaged on AI started to exit the corporate. Robby Walker, a senior government engaged on AI, left in October of that 12 months. In late 2025, Apple’s head of AI, John Giannandrea, stepped down. Following Giannadrea’s departure, longtime Apple software program chief Craig Federighi reportedly took charge of Siri.
Ternus’ chops are in {hardware}. He’s been Apple’s senior vp of {hardware} engineering since 2021. Previous to that, Ternus was a vp of engineering, and joined the corporate’s product design crew in 2001. A {hardware} government isn’t the obvious selection for guiding Apple because it figures out the place it stands on LLMs, inference studying, Siri-as-a-chatbot, hallucinations, AI privateness implications, vibe coding, and extra.
Besides Ternus himself has additionally been in control of probably the most important platforms for future Apple: its chips enterprise. Ming-Chi Kuo, the famed Apple analyst, pointed out on X that Ternus’ most essential transfer lately “was main the Mac transition from x86 (Intel) to ARM (Apple’s personal Apple Silicon).” This was a “system- and platform-level transition, primarily a mind transplant” that required “a really excessive stage of execution and tight cross-functional coordination.” With out this, Kuo continues, Apple wouldn’t have the {hardware} place it has now because it readies for AI gadgets.
