Apple Sets a $58 Million Pay Target for New CEO John Ternus After Cook’s Handoff

Apple set a $58 million US (about $85 million CAD) pay target for new CEO John Ternus and a $47 million US (about $69 million CAD) target for Tim Cook as executive chairman, according to Bloomberg, citing an updated securities filing dated September 1, the same day Ternus actually took the job.

Ternus’s fiscal 2027 package is a $3 million salary plus an annual equity award with a target value of $55 million, and 75 percent of those restricted stock units vest on Apple’s total shareholder return relative to other companies in the S&P 500 while the remaining 25 percent is time-based and vests semiannually in equal 12.5 percent installments over four years. Apple also granted him a prorated RSU award with a target value of $2.5 million for the stretch of fiscal 2026 he is sitting in the chair.

Cook’s new salary is $2 million starting September 26, 2026, plus a $45 million equity award for fiscal 2027 that splits 50/50 between those same performance RSUs and time-based units, and if he retires on or after the first anniversary of the grant date the award still vests subject to performance but the shares keep settling on the original calendar. Those target figures do not include performance-based cash bonuses, so the final 2027 number could still move, the same way Cook’s 2025 package came in at $74.3 million against a lower board target.

Ternus spent almost his whole career at Apple and took the CEO job on September 1 after Cook’s April succession plan, then posted a first “hello” on X the day he started. He still has to walk on stage at Apple’s September 9 event with that pay math sitting next to a leadership bench Cook barely touched.