From today, Tim Cook has been running Apple longer than Steve Jobs

As of 1 August 2025, Tim Cook has served as Apple's CEO for 5,091 days, officially surpassing Steve Jobs' total of 5,090 days.

Steve Jobs served as CEO in two phases:

• Interim: 16 September 1997 - 5 January 2000 (841 days)
• officially: 5 January 2000 - 24 August 2011 (4,249 days). Total: 5,090 days as CEO.

Relationship between Steve Jobs and Apple

Steve Jobs became one of the founders of Apple in 1976 and, despite taking an active part in its management, did not hold the position of CEO. Before the big investment, he called himself "employee number 0", and after the 1977 reorganisation, the company created the position of CEO, to which Michael Scott was invited. This was an initiative of investors, who did not want their money to be managed by the impulsive and uncontrollable 21-year-old Jobs and wanted a person in a leadership position who would speak their language. Jobs accepted these conditions, but in reality, he did not accept any of the CEO's initiatives and often openly feuded with them. Gradually, he was removed further and further from corporate governance, until in 1998 he was expelled from the company he founded.

The corporate management without Jobs led the company into a deadlocked crisis and it was going to end in bankruptcy in the late 90s. Then the board of directors decided that only Steve Jobs could save the situation. Steve did not immediately accept the offer, and took up the position of "acting CEO". Taking advantage of the fact that the company's situation was catastrophic and the board of directors would accept any terms, Jobs got rid of all his opponents in the company's top management. He then radically reformed Apple's operations, shutting down the development of many devices and firing a large number of employees. After this purge, Apple focused on fewer products, which allowed it to control them better.

Steve Jobs invited Tim Cook to join Apple in 1998. Cook is considered to be the main initiator of the idea to close all its own production in the United States and move it overseas to China. In order not to follow in the footsteps of other companies, Tim Cook introduced strict quality control at contractors' production facilities. These changes allowed Apple to become profitable. Very profitable.

In the mid-2000s, Cook became a close friend of Jobs, whom he trusted. Cook ran the company while Jobs was undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer in 2004. When Jobs' condition deteriorated in 2010, Steve began to transfer all his responsibilities to Tim. Tim Cook officially took over as CEO on 24 August 2011 and has been running the company continuously since then. Steve Jobs died of pancreatic cancer on 5 October 2011.

What's next?

Tim Cook is now 64 years old and can remain CEO for at least 3-5 years, as it is not yet clear who could replace him. Earlier, there were rumours that Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams could become his successor, but he is retiring this autumn. Currently, John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering, is considered a potential candidate. These rumours intensified in 2025 after it became apparent that Apple had missed the artificial intelligence boom and the company's market share fell by 2% in the second quarter.