Cook turned Apple into a $4T giant by not trying to be Steve Jobs

When he ran Apple, Tim Cook was like “the president of a country, not a company,” according to Gene Munster of Deepwater Asset Management.

Cook’s predecessor, Steve Jobs, is considered one of the greatest product innovators in modern American history. But the role has been very different since Jobs stepped down in 2011, shortly before he died of cancer, and tapped Cook to take over.

With his tenure as CEO set to end on September 1, Cook’s legacy will be one of incredible value creation — Apple’s market cap rose from $350 billion to $4 trillion on his watch — even if the company’s products have evolved more than revolutionized during his 15-year tenure.

That Cook, 65, is handing over the reins to longtime hardware boss John Ternus isn’t much of a surprise. Several media outlets have profiled Ternus in recent months, with the New York Times carrying a story in January titled, “The Man Who Could Be Apple’s Next CEO”

Still, the move is going “about two years earlier than I expected,” Munster told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” after the news broke Monday.

Munster said Cook has deftly navigated the Trump administration’s tax policies, which posed a particular threat to Apple because of how important the company is to China in manufacturing its equipment.

Far from suffering since Trump’s second White House term began in January 2025, Apple’s stock has risen nearly 20%, and Cook has never been shy about talking to the president about ways to please the CEO.

In August, Cook joined Trump at an Oval Office event to announce Apple’s new investment commitment of $100 billion in American manufacturing, and presented the president with a gold and glass plaque.

“Thank you all, and thank you, President Trump, for putting American innovation and American jobs first,” Cook said at the event, which brought Apple’s total spending to $600 billion in the US over the next five years.

Investors have been well rewarded for sticking with Cook.

Apple’s stock is nearly 20 times higher than when he took over, while the S&P 500 is up nearly six times over that period. Most corporate analysts and industry experts attribute Cook’s success to his financial prowess rather than product innovation.

“Building on Steve Jobs’ brand visionary leadership, Tim will likely be remembered for his operational leadership — transforming and growing Apple globally, deepening its service platform, strengthening its supply chain, and making the company operationally stronger and shareholder-focused,” said Rick Wargo, managing partner at executive search and leadership consulting firm Boyden.

Revenue nearly quadrupled under Cook, rising to more than $400 billion in the most recent fiscal year. Cook is well known in Silicon Valley as an operations expert, revamping Apple’s supply chain after joining in 1998 as senior vice president of global sales and operations.

When he arrived, Apple was close to bankruptcy. Years later, he became one of Operations’ top managers and was promoted to chief operating officer in 2005, two years before the iPhone was launched.

Cook continued to benefit from the popularity of the iPhone, which has dominated the growing smartphone market for nearly two decades. He is also credited with making key moves to diversify Apple’s business and leverage the company’s massive user base, which now reaches 2.5 billion active devices worldwide.

In 2014, Cook unveiled the Apple Watch, calling it “the most personal product we’ve ever made.” Then came AirPods in 2016.

In both cases, Apple was jumping into a more familiar category but was able to charge a premium for a product aimed more at iPhone users and offer rich enhancements to existing offerings.

Apple’s wearables division is expected to reach $41 billion in annual revenue in fiscal year 2022, accounting for more than 10% of total sales that year, and up from $25 billion three years ago.

But it’s been a tough market to keep up with a lot of competition and new features that are only on the rise. The company also failed to turn its high-priced Vision Pro into a consumer favorite, as virtual reality remains a niche market. The base Vision Pro retails for $3,500, meanwhile Meta The Quest 3S starts at $350.

Apple’s wearables business is now in a multi-year slump, with revenue down 4% in fiscal 2025 to $35.7 billion, accounting for 8.6% of total revenue.

Reports are swirling about what kind of wearable could be next for Apple – weather it’s smart glasses, a pendant or something else. In any case, the company is now competing on the device front with famous designer Jony Ive, who joined OpenAI last year when the maker of ChatGPT bought his startup for more than $6 billion.

I designed the iPod, iPhone, iPad and MacBook Air. He left Apple in 2019.

Profit-hungry investors are big fans of Cook’s push into services, which carry fatter profit margins than hardware. Long stuck at 38%, Apple’s gross margin has been rising in recent years, reaching 48% in the most recent quarter.

And while the wearables business is shrinking, the services unit is collapsing. Revenue in fiscal 2025 jumped 14% to $109.2 billion, making up 26% of total sales. Included in the services business are advertising, cloud services, digital content and payments.

Cook was able to get existing iPhone users to spend more with Apple on Apple TV and AppleCare subscriptions, as well as using Apple Pay to buy goods and buy apps.

“Apple’s core strength under Cook has been its ability to keep hardware, software, and services tightly integrated into a seamless user experience,” said Nitin Seth, CEO of consulting firm Incedo and former CEO of Flipkart. “That remains one of the company’s biggest differentiators.”

Cook is known as the mastermind behind Apple’s supply chain, having engineered the company’s shift to manufacturing in China nearly 25 years ago and its partnership with Foxconn. The series created by Apple is what allowed the company to build products at the scale and prices needed to meet demand, especially when the iPhone took off.

As relations with the US and China improved in recent years, Cook began to seek diversification, and he focused that effort on India and Vietnam. Apple is still very dependent on China, as it has expanded production throughout Asia.

“Virtually all of the Company’s hardware products are manufactured by our sales partners located primarily in China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam,” Apple notes in an SEC filing.

But Cook has found ways to keep Apple thriving even amid Trump’s trade wars.

The US government has eased China’s tough tariffs several times, smartphones have been exempted from tariffs and Cook told investors in mid-2025 that the company was able to reorganize its supply chain to import iPhones to the US from India, where prices were lower.

That all goes back to Cook’s relationship with the president, which has been strained at times during Trump’s first term. Cook, along with other top tech executives, attended Trump’s inauguration in early 2025, and contributed to the initial fund. Apple is also one of the corporate donors to Trump’s White House ballroom project.

The key to staying on top of Trump’s plans is Cook’s commitment to building the US

Last month, Apple announced the expansion of its American Manufacturing Program, bringing four new partners – Bosch, Cirrus Logic, TDK, and Qnity Electronics – into its domestic supply chain. The companies will produce key materials and components in the US for Apple products that are sold around the world, and Apple plans to invest $400 million in new systems by 2030.

“At Apple, we believe in the power of American innovation and manufacturing, and we’re proud to partner with many companies to produce critical components and high-quality components for our products right here in the US,” Cook said in a press release in March.

-CNBC’s Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.

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