Cook for Ternus: Apple changes direction to enter the AI era

Apple announces structural changes at its top. The CEO until now, Tim Cook, confirmed this Tuesday that he is handing over the reins to a new chief executive, a decade and a half after taking on the complicated task of succeeding the company's founder, Steve Jobs. He will be followed by John Ternus, until now vice president of hardware for the digital giant. The new era will be clearly marked by Apple's great challenge within the technological ecosystem: competing in the already crowded artificial intelligence market.

Cook, however, is not leaving the company: starting this September, he will take on the role of executive chairman of the board. This is an eminently corporate position, which will distance him from the day-to-day technical operations of the multinational, and bring him closer to the offices of American regulators and legislators at a particularly tense moment. It is worth remembering that Apple is one of the companies most affected by the trade war between the United States and China; given that it concentrates the production of a large part of its portfolio in the Asian country.

Cook leaves Apple established as one of the big names in global technology. Far from Jobs' creative approach, the executive has implemented operational improvements that have served to skyrocket the company's valuation: when he took over, Apple was worth just under 350 billion dollars, a figure 13 times lower than the current one, which is over 4.5 trillion dollars. Currently, the iPhone maker is the second largest company on the planet by market capitalization, surpassed only by Nvidia, which comfortably remains above the 5 trillion dollar threshold.

Return to engineering

In a memo sent to employees, Cook highlighted Ternus's innovative nature. "He is a brilliant engineer who has dedicated the last 25 years to building the Apple products our users love so much," praised the executive; who considers his successor to be "the perfect person for the job".

Ternus, in this way, will have to captain one of the largest corporate vessels on the planet through the rough waters of artificial intelligence. He will indeed face the public on September 9, when the multinational is expected to present its latest iPhone model. The decision to place the head of hardware at the helm of the company suggests that Apple wants to redouble its efforts in its strong suit, technological devices; and that it will seek ways to integrate AI applications into the devices for which it already dominates a good part of the market.