John Ternus has been leading Apple since Tuesday – and since Tuesday evening, it's also been known what the company will cost him. A fixed salary of three million dollars, plus a stock package with a target value of 55 million dollars. Tim Cook will receive a separate package for his new role on the board of directors, structured differently from his previous ones.
On the evening of September 1, Apple filed a supplement to its initial notification of the leadership change with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Form 8-K/A, signed by General Counsel Jennifer Newstead, provides the figures that had been explicitly omitted in the April notification. Both filings are retroactive to the effective date of the change in leadership, i.e., the day Ternus assumed leadership and Cook joined the board.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Ternus will receive a fixed salary of three million dollars and a stock package with a target value of 55 million dollars for the 2027 financial year.
- 75 percent of the package is tied to Apple's stock return compared to other companies in the S&P 500.
- For his service as CEO in the current fiscal year 2026, he will receive a pro-rata allocation with a target value of $2.5 million.
- As Executive Chair, Cook receives a salary of two million dollars and a stock package worth 45 million dollars – half based on time and half on performance.
- Cook's lower fixed salary will only take effect on September 26, a good three weeks after the change of office.
Three million fixed salary, 55 million in shares
The annual salary of the engineer, who has been with Apple since 2001, was increased to three million dollars as of the reporting date. This is exactly the amount Cook has received unchanged since 2016. On the same day, the relevant board committee approved a pro-rata allocation of restricted stock units for Ternus's tenure as CEO in the current fiscal year, with a target value of 2.5 million dollars.
The actual package will follow in fiscal year 2027 and has a target value of $55 million. One quarter of this will be allocated over time, in equal installments of 12.5 percent semi-annually over four years. The remaining three-quarters are tied to Apple's total shareholder return, as measured against other companies in the S&P 500.
The target value is not the payout amount. In performance-based allocations of this kind, the index ranking determines whether the final number of shares is less, the same, or a multiple of the target amount.
Cook's package as Executive Chair
After 15 years at the helm of the company, Cook is moving to the board of directors, where he will retain an operational role. His annual salary will decrease to two million dollars – but not until September 26, 2026, a good three weeks after the change at the top. Until then, his current salary will continue.
For fiscal year 2027, the committee has approved a stock package for him with a target value of $45 million. Unlike the Ternus deal, it is split equally: 50 percent time-dependent with the same semi-annual payments over four years, and 50 percent tied to the stock's return relative to the S&P 500.
In addition, there is a retirement clause. If Cook retires after the first anniversary of the allocation, the package does not lapse – the shares will continue to be settled on the originally scheduled dates, with the performance-based half continuing to depend on the achieved placement.
Target values compared: $58 million versus $59 million
The combined base salary and stock package amount to $58 million for Ternus and $47 million for Cook. For comparison, Cook's previous target compensation is worth noting: Apple had set it at $59 million for fiscal year 2025, as revealed in the proxy statement from January. This included, in addition to salary and stock package, a cash bonus with a target value of $6 million, which represented 200 percent of the base salary. The current statement lists only two components for Ternus.
| Ingredient | Ternus, fiscal year 2027 | Cook, fiscal year 2027 | Cook, fiscal year 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed salary | $3 million | $2 million | $3 million |
| Stock package (target value) | $55 million | $45 million | $50 million |
| depending on performance | 75 percent | 50 percent | 75 percent |
| Cash bonus (target value) | – | – | 6 million dollars |
| Total target compensation | $58 million | $47 million | $59 million |
Cook actually received significantly more for fiscal year 2025, namely $74.3 million. The difference stems primarily from the bonus: instead of the targeted $6 million, he received $12 million, double the target amount. This was supplemented by $57.5 million in stock awards, valued at the time of grant, and approximately $1.8 million in other benefits.
The performance-related portion moves with the office
The 75 percent split is not standard practice at Apple, but rather the result of a dispute with shareholders. Until 2022, Cook's stock was split 50/50. At the annual general meeting that same year, only 64 percent of shareholders approved the compensation policy - a significant drop compared to previous years, which Apple openly acknowledged in the subsequent proxy statement, attributing it to the size and structure of Cook's allocations. For 2023, the committee subsequently lowered the target by nearly 40 percent to $40 million and increased the performance-based component from 50 to 75 percent. This structure has applied to Cook ever since, while all other executives have maintained a 50/50 split.
Apple is now drawing precisely this dividing line. With Ternus's appointment, he also assumes the stricter quota. Cook, as Executive Chair, reverts to the distribution that applies to the other members of the recently restructured leadership team. The allocation thus depends on the position, not the individual – a detail that only becomes apparent when comparing it to the previous year's figures.
A DAX CEO earns one-fifth of that
For German-speaking countries, the executive compensation study by the German Shareholders' Association (DSW) and the Technical University of Munich, published in August for the fiscal year 2025, provides the benchmark. According to the study, a DAX CEO earned an average of €6.137 million. The top earner was SAP CEO Christian Klein with €10.851 million, followed by Christian Sewing (Deutsche Bank) with €10.501 million and Bjørn Gulden (Adidas) with €9.830 million.
The same analysis ranks Cook third among Dow Jones companies for the fiscal year 2025 with the equivalent of €65.8 million, behind David Solomon (Goldman Sachs, €105.3 million) and Satya Nadella (Microsoft, €85.5 million). 28 of the 30 CEOs listed there earned more than the highest-paid DAX CEO.
The difference is explained less by salaries than by the structure. In the Dow Jones, an average of 78.3 percent of total compensation in 2025 consisted of long-term, predominantly stock-based components, while fixed salaries accounted for only 8.6 percent. In the DAX, the long-term variable component was 43.3 percent, and the fixed component was 30.4 percent. The German Shareholders' Association (DSW) explicitly does not consider compensation of this magnitude to be a model for the German context and points to the societal acceptance of corporate governance.
Five percent fixed fee, the rest depends on the share price
The document's true message lies not in the total amount, but in the proportion. Of Ternus's target compensation, three million is allocated to his fixed salary, or just over five percent. Apple already disclosed this allocation under Cook, describing it as tied to long-term corporate success. However, there's a downside: In a market that has been rising for years, stock packages grow along with the market, without revealing what portion is attributable to management's efforts. The relative measurement against the S&P 500 mitigates this, but doesn't eliminate it.
For readers in Germany, this means one thing above all: comparing Apple's compensation with German figures means comparing two different systems. A DAX board member receives almost a third of their compensation as a fixed amount, while a US CEO receives less than a tenth. The absolute figures are therefore only of limited significance – the difference lies in how much is actually dependent on the share price.
Reliable figures will not be available until January
The final amount of compensation will only be known once Apple discloses the compensation for the current fiscal year. The proxy statement for fiscal year 2025 was released on January 8, 2026; the statement, containing Ternus's first figures, is expected to follow the same pattern in January 2027. It will also reveal whether a cash bonus will be added to the salary and stock package. Until then, the current figures remain what they are: a target figure that shareholders can evaluate at the next annual general meeting - just as they did in 2022, with noticeable consequences.
Do you consider a stock portfolio that is three-quarters dependent on the price performance relative to the S&P 500 to be the right benchmark – or does it ultimately primarily reward a good year for the stock market?