Apple’s new chief executive, John Ternus, has been handed a compensation package with a target value of $55 million (£41.1 million) for the company’s 2027 financial year, as he formally succeeds Tim Cook at the technology giant.
The award was disclosed in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday, September 1, the day Ternus took over as chief executive. His annual salary has risen to $3 million, while he has also received a separate restricted stock unit award worth $2.5 million, prorated for the remainder of Apple’s 2026 financial year.
Three-quarters of the $55 million package will be made up of performance-based shares, with vesting linked to Apple’s total shareholder return compared with other companies in the S&P 500. The remaining quarter will consist of time-based shares, vesting in six-monthly instalments over four years.
A securities filing shows that 12.5 per cent of the time-based award is scheduled to vest on March 15, 2027, with the rest due to follow in equal instalments until September 2030.
Ternus, previously Apple’s senior vice-president of Hardware Engineering, joined the company’s board as part of the leadership transition. Apple announced in April that Cook would become executive chairman after 15 years as chief executive, with the change taking effect on September 1.
Cook’s salary will fall from $3 million to $2 million from September 26. He has nevertheless been approved for a $45 million equity award for the 2027 financial year, split equally between performance-based and time-based restricted stock units.
The filing also provides for Cook’s equity award to continue vesting if he retires after the first anniversary of the grant, subject to the performance conditions attached to half of the award.
Apple has not yet disclosed whether Ternus will receive an annual cash bonus. Cook received $12 million bonuses in each of the previous two financial years, according to the company’s securities filings.
John Ternus follows the Tim Cook precedent
The scale and structure of Ternus’s package differ sharply from the award Cook received when he succeeded Steve Jobs in 2011. Cook was then granted one million restricted stock units with a grant-date value of $376.2 million, alongside a salary of $900,000 that was later raised to $1.4 million.
Half of that award vested five years after it was granted and the remainder after ten years. Two years later, Cook asked Apple’s board to introduce performance conditions, tying much of the award to the company’s position among S&P 500 businesses for shareholder returns.
Ternus already owns about 34,000 Apple shares held in a trust, worth roughly $11.1 million based on Tuesday’s share price, according to the filing. He also holds seven restricted-stock grants from his time leading hardware engineering, covering about 305,000 shares.
Almost half of those existing awards are performance units, meaning the eventual payout could range from about $50 million to $148 million depending on Apple’s results and share performance.
