Apple sets $58M target for CEO Ternus, $47M for chairman Cook
TL;DR
- Ternus's FY27 target package totals about $58M: $3M base salary and a $55M stock grant, with 75% performance-based on TSR vs. the S&P 500.
- Cook's executive chairman package targets $47M ($2M salary, $45M equity) — a sharp step down from the $74.3M he earned in 2025.
- Ternus also receives a one-time prorated $2.5M RSU for his partial-year FY26 service, with the disclosure lodged with the SEC on his first day.
Apple set John Ternus's fiscal 2027 target compensation at roughly $58 million and Tim Cook's package as executive chairman at about $47 million, per an SEC filing lodged on the first day of Ternus's tenure and reported by Bloomberg.
Ternus, who took over on September 1 after 25 years at Apple running hardware for the iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Vision Pro, will draw a $3 million annual base salary and a stock grant with a target value of $55 million. About 75% of that award, the filing says, is "performance-based RSUs that vest based on Apple's total shareholder return" against other companies in the S&P 500; the remaining 25% is time-based, vesting semiannually over four years. He also picks up a "one-time, prorated restricted stock unit (RSU) award with a target value of $2.5 million" for his prorated fiscal 2026 CEO service.
Cook's numbers move the other way. As executive chairman he will receive a $2 million annual salary and an equity award targeted at $45 million in fiscal 2027, against the $74.3 million he took home in 2025, which included $3 million in salary, $12 million in performance-based cash awards, and $57.5 million in stock awards.
The disclosure formalises the succession Apple announced on April 20, when the board named Ternus, then senior vice president of Hardware Engineering, as chief executive effective September 1. Cook, per the company's earlier language, will "assist with certain aspects of the company, including engaging with policymakers around the world," while Arthur Levinson, non-executive chairman for the previous 15 years, becomes lead independent director. This is the fourth Apple story we've logged on aiweekly.co in a single day, alongside the Mac mini and Studio refresh being pulled on AI cluster demand and OpenAI's countersuit citing Apple's iCloud policy.
The proxy does not say whether Cook's $45 million equity grant carries the same S&P 500 TSR triggers as Ternus's stock, or how it splits between performance and time-based RSUs.
Originally reported by bloomberg.com
Read the original article →Original headline: Apple Sets $58M FY27 Pay Target for CEO-Elect John Ternus, $47M for Chairman Tim Cook