❯ Apple filing puts Ternus’s fiscal 2027 compensation at about $58 million

two packagesAn Apple filing with the SEC puts new CEO John Ternus’s fiscal 2027 target compensation at about $58 million, comprising a $3 million annual base salary and a stock grant with a target value of $55 million; he also receives a prorated restricted stock unit award worth about $2.5 million for fiscal 2026. The filing landed on Ternus’s first day in the role.

Cook's sidePer the same filing, Cook’s salary as executive chair falls from $3 million to $2 million, with a 2027 stock package targeted at $45 million, for about $47 million in total. The structural difference says more than the totals: three-quarters of Ternus’s equity award is tied to Apple’s performance relative to the S&P 500, with the remaining 25% vesting semiannually on time; only half of Cook’s equity is performance-linked.

the signal is in the structureThe share of a package tied to performance is the board pricing how much pressure a person is expected to carry. Ternus’s 75% against Cook’s 50% states the nature of this handover plainly: the incoming CEO has to earn his pay by beating the index, and the tightest item on his job list is catching up in AI. Cook is not leaving, staying closely involved and keeping his relationships with Donald Trump and in China.

▪ SIGNALThree-quarters of the equity riding on beating the S&P — Apple’s board wrote its demand of the new CEO into the vesting terms.