Cook has led the company for almost 15 years, assuming the role shortly before founder Steve Jobs’ death in 2011. Under his leadership, Apple’s market capitalization has grown from $350 billion to $4 trillion and the company has launched products such as iCloud, Apple Pay, AirPods, and the Apple Watch, redefining the brand as more than just a phone and computer company. 

Cook will step down as CEO on Sept. 1, but will remain as Apple’s executive chairman. The 65-year-old boasts one of the longest tenures in Big Tech as a non-founding CEO. He has navigated geopolitical conflicts, shielding Apple from tariffs, and landed huge partnerships with other big tech companies. His legacy has earned him praise from fellow business leaders following the announcement. 

“Tim Cook is a legend,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman wrote on X. “I am very thankful for everything he has done, and I am very thankful for Apple.” In 2024, Apple agreed to integrate OpenAI’s ChatGPT chatbot into iPhone, iPad and Mac products, providing access to the company’s more than 1 billion users. 

Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, told CNBC: “Apple would not be the Apple of today without Tim Cook.

“What he has done with Apple could not be done by anybody I’ve known,” he noted. “Covering the world and getting along with countries with all kinds of histories and doing right by the customer, people who worked for him, certainly the shareholders, which we were lucky enough to be one of … He’s one of a kind,” Buffett said. Apple is Berkshire Hathaway’s largest holding, and Buffett has long praised Cook for his consumer-forward approach and bringing large returns for shareholders.

Palmer Luckey, founder of defense company Anduril, wrote in an X post: “RIP Tim Apple,” a reference to President Donald Trump mistakenly calling the CEO “Tim Apple” in 2019. Since then, the president has used it as a pet name for Cook. Luckey previously praised Apple’s Vision Pro virtual reality headset, a product hardware chief Ternus was deeply involved in. 

A shout-out from the president

The president once again evoked his pet name for the CEO in a social media post congratulating Cook on Tuesday morning and noting a phone call he’d had with Cook during his first term.

“When I got the call I said, wow, it’s Tim Apple (Cook!) calling, how big is that?” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “I was very impressed with myself to have the head of Apple calling to ‘kiss my ass’ … That was the beginning of a long and very nice relationship. During my five years as President, Tim would call me, but never too much, and I would help him where I could.

“I have always been a big fan of Tim Cook, and likewise, Steve Jobs, but if Steve was not taken from the Planet Earth so young, and ran the company instead of Tim, the company would have done well, but nowhere near as well as it has under Tim,” the president added.

Big Tech made a reversal during Trump’s second term, and began courting the White House, with Apple chief among them, earning Cook his position as “the Trump whisperer.” In line with Trump’s “America First” manufacturing agenda, Apple committed to accelerating domestic manufacturing by spending $100 billion, bringing the company’s total investment in domestic production to $600 billion over the next four years. At a ceremony announcing the commitment in August, Cook gifted Trump a customized glass plaque mounted on a 24-karat gold stand.

“Anyway, Tim Cook had an AMAZING career, almost incomparable, and will go on and continue to do great work for Apple, and whatever else he chooses to work on. Quite simply, Tim Cook is an incredible guy!!!” Trump wrote. 

Cook’s schmoozing with the Republican president is not without consequence. He came under fire with Apple employees in January after he attended a White House screening of a documentary about first lady Melania Trump, hours after a Border Patrol agent killed Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and American citizen, in Minneapolis. Days later, he told employees that he’d spoken with Trump about de-escalating ICE operations in the city.