As John Ternus officially becomes Apple CEO today, observers are reassessing Tim Cook's record. Under Cook, Apple more than quadrupled its annual revenue and grew its market capitalization by an even larger factor, surpassing $4 trillion. He also transformed Apple into a major services provider, persuading hundreds of millions of iPhone and Mac users to spend billions more on subscriptions such as Apple TV+, Apple News, and iCloud.
Why AI matters for his legacy
Beyond those financial and product milestones, Cook's long-term reputation will likely hinge on how Apple navigates artificial intelligence. A defining choice of his tenure was to base part of Apple’s AI strategy on models developed by other companies rather than building a full-scale frontier-model business and the associated infrastructure in-house.
In the short term that approach can produce large cost savings: developing and operating cutting-edge models demands enormous investment—capital that companies like Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI and Anthropic have poured into their AI efforts. But relying on external models also creates dependence: some of Apple’s most important AI capabilities now lean on third parties, notably Google.
Apple Intelligence, Siri and the rollout
Apple outlined its Apple Intelligence vision at WWDC in June 2024, pitching an ambitious, privacy-focused system that would answer highly personalized questions while keeping underlying personal data on-device or in a privacy-protected cloud. Implementation proved uneven: the centerpiece of that strategy, a revamped Siri, only arrived with iOS 27 after repeated delays. To reach this point, Apple relied in part on models supplied by outside companies, including Google.
Opportunity versus risk
If AI models become commoditized, Cook’s restraint could be judged astute—he avoided the enormous sums competitors spent on model development and infrastructure. If instead a company such as OpenAI, Anthropic or another AI developer leverages its models into a new, successful hardware and computing platform, critics may say Cook missed an opportunity by not deploying Apple’s financial strength to secure a dominant position for the next era of computing.
Ultimately, Tim Cook’s legacy will be shaped in the coming years by whether Apple’s hybrid AI strategy proves to be a cost-effective, sustainable path or a strategic vulnerability created by dependence on external model providers.
