Who’s next in Apple’s CEO hot seat after Tim Cook?

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Apple’s board and senior leadership are speeding up their behind-the-scenes hunt for the company’s next CEO. 

According to Financial Times sources, succession planning, already in motion for years, has now entered the “let’s be extra ready” phase, in case Tim Cook decides 2026 is the year he trades Apple Park for a well-earned sabbatical.

This isn’t about performance or crisis management. Cook is still Cook: understated, unflappable, and quietly printing billions. But Apple’s leadership roster is getting seasoned. 

Many top executives are now north of 60, and for a company of Apple’s scale, grooming the next captain of the spaceship is as mandatory as the annual iPhone color refresh.

The company likely won’t say anything publicly until after its blockbuster January earnings call. 

But insiders think an announcement early in the year would give a new leadership team time to settle in before WWDC and the fall iPhone launch, Apple’s equivalent of Super Bowl season.

The timing of the report is interesting. 

It lands just after longtime COO Jeff Williams officially retired in November, following a July step-down that passed the operational baton to Sabih Khan. 

Williams had long been floated as a natural successor to Cook, but his retirement all but closes that chapter.

So who’s in the running?

The current shortlist has three names, all very familiar to Apple watchers. The frontrunner is John Ternus, the 50-year-old SVP of hardware engineering who has been quietly reshaping Apple’s device lineup. 

Then there’s Craig Federighi, the charismatic, hair-model-esque SVP of software engineering. With his years of WWDC stage presence and meme-ready charm, he’d be Apple’s most outward-facing CEO since, honestly, ever.

Rounding out the list: Greg “Joz” Joswiak, the marketing SVP who has spent 30 years steering Apple’s messaging, and the face of Pro-level iPhones.

Whoever gets the job will inherit one of the most powerful seats in tech. 

And Apple, always allergic to surprises, is making sure the handoff is as polished as the chamfered edges on a MacBook.