Apple CEO Suffers Financial Setback, Still Richer Than Everyone You Know
Apple CEO Tim Cook had a pretty dismal pay cut in 2025, according to new data.
The Hollywood Reporter stated on January 8th that the tech executive had an "essentially flat" financial compensation package last year. According to the outlet, Cook's compensation package totalled $74.3 million, including a $3 million salary, $57.5 million stock awards, $12 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, and $1.7 million in other compensation, namely "security and private jet costs".
Not a bad payday, right? Well, in 2024, Cook's compensation package totalled $74.6 million, showing a distinct lack of growth for one of the world's largest, most successful companies. That same day, The New York Times forecast a change in the air at the top of Apple's peak. The newspaper reported Cook, in the face of these lower earnings, was "tired," and wanted to "reduce his workload".
The solution, allegedly, is a new CEO — namely John Ternus, a "low-profile" head of hardware engineering at Apple. The publication pointed out that Ternus, 50, "is the same age that Mr. Cook was when he took over for Steve Jobs in 2011," so the corporate giant may be looking for some young blood for the new year.
"Like Mr. Cook, Mr. Ternus is known for his attention to detail and his knowledge of Apple’s vast supply network," Apple insiders told the Times. "Both men are also considered even-tempered collaborators, capable of navigating the bureaucracy of one of the world’s wealthiest companies without ruffling feathers."
“If you want to make an iPhone every year, Ternus is your guy,” Cameron Rogers, a former Engineering Management head at Apple told the paper.
In recent years, Apple has been criticized for failing to keep up its reputation as an innovative, world-leading company as it once had under its co-founder, Steve Jobs, who resigned as CEO just months before his death in 2011, at the age of 56. In 2022, Jobs' daughter, Eve Jobs, mocked the company for releasing the same model of iPhone over and over again, an alleged pale imitation of her father's legacy.