Tim Cook is no longer Apple’s CEO, but he will continue to collect a CEO-sized salary.
This week, Cook Apple handed over the reins to John Ternus after fifteen years in charge, and took on the role of executive chairman.
Cook’s new job will pay a salary of $2 million instead of $3 million and come with annual stock compensation with a target value of $45 million for fiscal year 2027, Apple said in a regulatory filing on Tuesday.
Half of that compensation consists of performance-based restricted stock units (RSUs) that vest based on Apple’s total shareholder returns compared to other S&P 500 companies. The other half is time-based and vests over a four-year period.
As CEO, Cook earned approximately $74 million – including $14 million in cash bonuses and other compensation – in both 2024 and 2025
Apple has announced this Ternus will receive an annual salary of $3 million and restricted stock with a target value of $55 million for his first year as CEO. As many as 75% of the RSUs will be tied to Apple’s relative performance, while 25% will vest over four years.
The iPhone maker did not say how much Ternus and Cook could earn in cash bonuses.
The Buffett approach
The size of Cook’s pay package indicates that he will continue to play a central role at Apple.
Warren Buffett has taken a similar approach at Berkshire Hathaway, where he retired as CEO at the end of this year but remained as chairman and served as a close advisor to new CEO Greg Abel. even choose stocks for Berkshire’s portfolio.
Cook’s compensation as chairman can also be seen as a reflection of the value he created for Apple. As CEO, he scaled Apple’s manufacturing and distribution, strengthened its global supply chain, and successfully targeted China’s growing middle class.
Apple’s split-adjusted stock price shot up nearly 2,300% during his tenure, from about $13 to $317 at the end of Cook’s last day as CEO on Monday. The price closed almost 3% higher at $325 on Tuesday.
These achievements have generated huge profits for shareholders. said Buffett during Berkshire’s shareholder meeting in May that its $35 billion investment in Apple grew under Cook to $185 billion in pre-tax value, including dividends.
“Tim Cook made Berkshire much more than I made Berkshire,” Buffett told his shareholders last year.
Cook also cultivated strong relationships with President Donald Trump and the Chinese government, who helped Apple weather geopolitical turmoil in recent years. Ternus could call on him in the future to work on those connections.
While Ternus struggles with challenges, such as those of Apple AI strategy and its discontinuation exodus of talentPerhaps Apple’s upper management has decided that keeping Cook on the payroll is worth the price.
