At a meeting with employees on Thursday, Apple CEO Tim Cook briefly touched on the topic of retirement, but remained confident about his plans.
“I spend a lot of time thinking about who’s in the room five years from now, 10 years from now,” said Cook, who fielded questions. Bloombergis Mark Gurman. “I’m obsessed with it — who’s in the room in 15 years.”
A few months ago, Financial Times reported that Apple is preparing for Cook to step down as early as 2026. However, Gurman previously said that timeframe “doesn’t seem likely” and that he would be “shocked” if Cook stepped down before the middle of this year. So Cook can stay on as CEO until at least WWDC 2026.
John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering, is widely regarded as Cook’s most likely successor. Last month, Gurman announced that Cook had handed over oversight of Apple’s design teams to Ternus at the end of last year, saying the move made it “crystal clear” that Ternus was the front-runner for CEO.
Whenever that happens, there has been speculation that Cook could become Apple’s executive chairman after he steps down as CEO. In this position, Cook would retain some control over the company’s decisions.
Cook has been Apple’s CEO since August 2011 and reached the typical retirement age of 65 last year. It sounds more and more likely that his time at the helm of the company is slowly coming to an end, but it remains to be seen if he plans to step down in the coming months or if the news is over the top.
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