John Ternus, a 25-year Apple veteran and self-described product perfectionist, will succeed Tim Cook as Apple's chief executive on September 1, inheriting a company that has fallen behind rivals in artificial intelligence. Unlike Microsoft and Google, which have poured hundreds of billions of dollars into AI, Ternus has signalled a deliberately cautious approach, saying Apple's focus is on using technology to make "amazing products" rather than shipping the technology itself. The transition comes at a critical moment: Apple has lost its position as the world's most valuable company to Nvidia (the US chipmaker whose processors power much of the AI industry), its revamped Siri assistant has faced delays, and competitors including Samsung, OpenAI, and Meta are moving aggressively into AI-driven devices — raising questions about whether Apple's hardware-centric leadership style is equal to the challenge of defining an entirely new computing platform.