Sam Altman, Palmer Luckey, Warren Buffett react to Apple CEO move
Apple CEO Tim Cook holds an iPhone 17 pro and an iPhone air as Apple holds an event at the Steve Jobs Theater on its campus in Cupertino, California, on September 9, 2025.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
Apple On Monday, it announced that CEO Tim Cook will be replaced by John Ternus. Executives in the tech industry and beyond began reacting to the transition shortly after the news broke.
Cook had been the iPhone maker’s CEO for nearly 15 years after founder Steve Jobs resigned in 2011.
“Tim Cook is a legend,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said Published on X. “I’m so grateful to him for everything he’s done, and I’m so grateful to Apple.”
Apple and OpenAI first established partnership in 2024We integrate ChatGPT into Siri and Apple’s authoring tools.
Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey also wrote in X: “RIP Tim AppleIt refers to the famous White House incident with President Donald Trump in 2019.
Trump mistakenly referred to Cook as “Tim Apple” during his first term. Cook downplayed this statement by changing his last name to the Apple logo on his Twitter profile.
Luckey left Facebook in 2017 and founded defense contractor Anduril later that year.
“Apple wouldn’t be the Apple it is today if it weren’t for Tim Cook,” Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett told CNBC’s Becky Quick.
“Nobody I know could have done what he did to Apple,” Buffett said. Apple is Berkshire Hathaway’s largest shareholder.
“We’re lucky enough to be one of them, someone who spans the world, gets along with countries of all backgrounds, and does right by the customer, the people who work for him, and especially the shareholders… he’s one of a kind,” Buffett said.
Ternus, currently senior vice president of hardware engineering, will become CEO effective September 1. Cook will then assume the role of chief executive.
