Cook turned Apple into a $4T giant by not trying to be Steve Jobs

In his time running Apple, Tim Cook has been more like the “president of a country, not a company,” according to Deepwater Asset Management’s Gene Munster.

Cook’s predecessor, Steve Jobs, is considered one of the great product innovators in modern American history. But the role has been a very different one since Jobs stepped down in 2011, shortly before he died from cancer, and tapped Cook to take over.

With his run as CEO coming to an end on Sept. 1, Cook’s legacy will be one of tremendous value creation — Apple’s market cap increased from about $350 billion to $4 trillion on his watch — even if the company’s products were more evolutionary than revolutionary during his 15-year run.

That Cook, 65, is handing the reins to longtime hardware boss John Ternus is no great surprise. Multiple news outlets profiled Ternus in recent months, with The New York Times running a story in January headlined, “The Man Who Could Be Apple’s Next C.E.O.”

Still, the move is taking place “about two years earlier than what I was expecting,” Munster told CNBC’s “Closing Bell: Overtime” after the news broke on Monday.

Munster said Cook has cleverly navigated the Trump administration’s tariff policies, which posed a particular threat to Apple because of how much the company counts on China for the manufacturing of its devices.

Far from suffering since Trump’s second White House term began in January 2025, Apple’s stock is up about 20%, and Cook hasn’t been shy at all about cozying up to the president in ways meant to charm the commander in chief.

In August, Cook joined Trump at an event in the Oval Office touting a new $100 billion investment commitment by Apple to American manufacturing, and gifted the president a gold and glass plaque.

“Thank you all, and thank you, President Trump, for putting American innovation and American jobs front and center,” Cook said at the event, which brought Apple’s total planned spend to $600 billion in the U.S. over the next five years. 

Investors have been handsomely rewarded for sticking with Cook.

Apple’s stock is close to 20 times higher than it was when he took over, while the S&P 500 is up about sixfold over that stretch. Most company analysts and industry experts attribute Cook’s success to his rigor and financial discipline rather than to product innovation.

“Building on Steve Jobs’ visionary product leadership, Tim will likely be remembered for his operational leadership — transforming and scaling Apple globally, deepening its services platform, strengthening its supply chain, and making the company more operationally resilient and shareholder-focused,” said Rick Wargo, managing partner at executive search and leadership consulting firm Boyden.

Revenue almost quadrupled under Cook, climbing to over $400 billion in the latest fiscal…