If You Had Bought $10,000 of Apple Stock When Steve Jobs Handpicked Tim Cook as the Next CEO, Here's How Much You'd Have Today

The article is a retrospective on Tim Cook’s 15-year tenure as Apple CEO as he prepares to hand the role to John Ternus on Sept. 1. It argues Cook was crucial to Apple’s massive shareholder returns by scaling the iPhone globally, launching and growing wearables and AirPods, and expanding services into a roughly $120 billion profit center. The piece illustrates the long-term compounding effect by showing that a $10,000 investment made when Steve Jobs resigned in 2011 would be worth about $241,500 today, or about $289,500 with dividends reinvested. The market takeaway is that Apple remains in strong operational shape, with growing sales, robust iPhone demand, and AI as the next major execution challenge under new leadership. Broadcom is mentioned as a supplier tied to Apple’s custom AI accelerator effort through 2031.