Cook hands over the baton, Apple changes leadership: Behind OpenAI's buying spree of Mac minis lies Apple's ticket to a new era of AI

Source: BIT Securities

On September 1, Apple welcomed a highly significant day: Tim Cook's 15-year tenure as CEO officially came to an end, and hardware business head John Ternus took over on the same day.

In this current AI frenzy, the core question Ternus faces upon taking office is clear—how to help this consumer electronics giant, rooted in hardware, re-establish its competitive advantage in the AI era.

1. The Tepid Apple Suddenly "Swept Up" by OpenAI

In this wave of AI, Apple's performance has been quite standard; it cannot be said to have fallen behind, but it is far from being the main character.

However, the latest news may allow Apple to regain its entry ticket to the AI table: OpenAI has purchased tens of thousands of screenless, keyboardless Mac mini and Mac Studio units for reinforcement learning training and the development of "computer operation" type AI agents; Anthropic is also renting Mac computing power on a large scale through AWS.

Why are AI companies focusing on Macs? The answer lies in Apple's chip architecture. Apple's chips use a unified memory architecture, allowing for the direct loading of quantized models with tens of billions or even over a hundred billion parameters—without the need to shuttle data back and forth between video memory and RAM like NVIDIA GPUs. For those running large models, the time saved is not just about efficiency, but also about real monetary costs.

2. The Financial Report Has Already Moved: Macs Become Apple's Fastest-Growing Hardware

The influx of enterprise-level demand is directly reflected in the reports. Mac's latest quarterly revenue grew nearly 29% year-on-year, reaching $10.3 billion, making it Apple's fastest-growing hardware product line.

An even more convincing signal comes from competitors: NVIDIA has internally regarded Apple as the biggest competitor in the local AI market, and its previously launched DGX Spark looks strikingly similar to the Mac mini—being "homaged" by NVIDIA is, in itself, a form of status certification.

3. New Leader Ternus: A Product Guy Who Started as a Mac Engineer

So, what is the background of Apple's new successor Ternus at this critical time? Ternus has actually been at Apple for 25 years, starting as a Mac engineer and leading the development of the iPad, AirPods, and iPhone, eventually overseeing the entire hardware engineering system, making him a recognized hardware expert within Apple.

At the beginning of his tenure, challenges were already lined up: the September iPhone new product launch event and the full deployment of the new Siri AI.

The new product pipeline he leads is quite ambitious: this fall, Apple is set to launch a foldable iPhone and a smart display device capable of recognizing speakers and personalizing content accordingly. Whether these products can deliver on their promises will directly determine whether Apple can maintain its position in the AI hardware arena.

4. The Subtext of the Board: What Apple Lacks Is Not Money, But the Next Product Innovation

Looking back at this leadership change, the choice of successor itself conveys a message.

Over the past decade, Apple has excelled in operations, supply chain, ecosystem, and profitability. However, entering the AI era, what Apple truly lacks is neither money nor users, but "the next product innovation." Therefore, the board did not choose a financial CEO but handed the reins to a product guy with a mechanical engineering background and 25 years of hardware experience.

In the short term, the impact of changing CEOs on stock prices is limited, as Cook will still serve as executive chairman, and there will be no power vacuum at Apple. What truly determines Apple's future valuation is not how many more units of the next-generation iPhone sell, but whether Apple can find a new entry point in the AI era. In the next 3 to 5 years, Apple's biggest bet may no longer be the iPhone, but rather the combination of "AI + chips + new hardware entry."

5. In Conclusion

Fifteen years ago, Cook took over Apple from Jobs, pushing the company to the pinnacle of global market value through operations and supply chain management. Fifteen years later, the board has handed the scepter to a hardware engineer, publicly acknowledging that the dividends of the "operational era" have been exhausted, and Apple must return to the "product innovation era."

OpenAI sweeping up Mac minis and NVIDIA listing Apple as its number one local AI competitor indicate that Apple has always held the entry ticket to the AI era—the chip with a unified memory architecture. What it has lacked in the past is the product imagination to utilize that ticket.

Whether Ternus can fill this gap will soon be revealed at the fall launch event, and the true results will continue to unfold in the next three to five years.

Risk Warning: This article is written and provided by an external contributor. The personnel arrangement information mentioned has been verified, but the specific procurement numbers, institutional judgments, and strategic interpretations involved come from public reports and market analysis compilations, which may contain inaccuracies. The views, analyses, and judgments in this article represent the author's personal opinions and do not represent the official position of BIT or BIT Research. BIT also does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the relevant content. This article does not constitute investment advice, an offer, or an invitation to offer, nor does it constitute a recommendation for any securities transactions. Investment involves the risk of principal loss, and market prices may fluctuate significantly; past performance does not guarantee future results. Investors should make independent judgments and consult professional advice.