Photo: Reuters
Cook will remain at Apple as executive chairman of the board of directors and will “assist the company in certain areas, including engaging with policymakers around the world,” according to a company statement.
According to Investing, citing Yahoo Finance, during his tenure as CEO, Cook oversaw the launch of numerous new products, including the Apple Watch, AirPods, and MacBook Neo. He also played a key role in growing Apple’s services revenue to more than $100 billion—the company’s second-largest business after the iPhone.
Steve Jobs hired Cook in 1998 and promoted him to executive vice president of worldwide sales in 2002, and then named him chief operating officer in 2005. In 2011, Cook succeeded Jobs as CEO.
During that time, Cook used his expertise in supply chain management to dramatically expand Apple’s business. The company’s market capitalization grew from $350 billion to more than $4 trillion—a staggering 1,000% increase.
Annual revenue quadrupled—from $108 billion in 2011 to $416 billion in 2025. Revenue from the iPhone skyrocketed under Cook’s leadership—from $47.1 billion to $209.6 billion. And the Apple Watch and AirPods became the world’s most popular smartwatch and earbuds.
Importantly, Cook pushed the company to transition from Intel chips in the Mac lineup to its own processors, which helped improve the performance of laptops and desktop computers and provided significantly better battery life—a feat competitors are only now catching up to.
