Apple has disclosed compensation targets for its new leadership team, according to Bloomberg News’ Mark Gurman, after an SEC filing on John Ternus’s first day as chief executive.
Apple said new CEO John Ternus will have a fiscal 2027 compensation package worth about $58 million, while Tim Cook’s package as executive chairman is targeted at about $47 million. The company disclosed the figures in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026 — Ternus’s first day in the role.
Ternus will receive a $3 million annual base salary and a stock grant with a target value of $55 million for fiscal 2027. About 75% of that equity award will be performance-based restricted stock units that vest based on Apple’s total shareholder return relative to other S&P 500 companies. The remaining 25% will be time-based RSUs that vest semiannually in equal 12.5% installments over four years.
Apple also granted Ternus a one-time, prorated RSU award with a target value of about $2.5 million for his partial-year service as CEO in fiscal 2026, which ends in September.
Cook, 65, is stepping down after a 15-year run as CEO. In his new role as executive chairman, his annual salary will fall to $2 million from $3 million, and the target value of his fiscal 2027 equity award is $45 million. Half of Cook’s equity will be performance-based and half time-based. His total compensation as CEO in 2025 was $74.3 million.
The target figures do not include performance-based cash bonuses, so the amounts actually paid in fiscal 2027 could differ. Ternus, 51, previously led Apple’s hardware engineering organization after 25 years at the company. Under Cook, Apple’s stock rose more than 2,200%.
MacDailyNews Take: Cook is either being wildly overpaid as Executive Chairman or he’s planning to be very involved, neither of which are good news unless Ternus has the authority to overrule Cook’s risk-averse instincts. Apple can afford to overpay executive figureheads for, basically, forever, but it cannot afford to operate as Tim Cook’s Apple any longer.
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