Apple must relearn how to surprise under new CEO Ternus, says BofA

Apple must relearn how to surprise under new CEO Ternus, says BofA

Thu, August 20, 2026 at 10:07 PM GMT+3 1 min read

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Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL, XETRA:APC)'s real test under incoming CEO John Ternus will be restoring a sense of technological surprise to a company too large for incremental excellence alone to redefine it, according to analysts at Bank of America.

The bank made the observation in a research note reiterating its Buy rating on Apple ahead of Ternus's transition to CEO on September 1. BofA said it expects much of Apple's core business to remain unchanged under Ternus, pointing to strong capital returns, potential leadership in AI at the edge, and optionality from new products and markets as reasons behind its rating.

BofA credited Cook with building roughly $4.5 trillion in market capitalization over nearly 15 years, a pace it calculated at about $32 million per hour, by growing Apple's installed base of devices and monetizing it through services such as Apple Pay, the App Store, Apple Music and Apple TV+.

The bank said Apple's next era will likely move away from the cloud-services model that enabled apps like Uber and Maps, toward one where devices themselves carry AI functionality and drive productivity. Wearables such as glasses, rings and AirPods with cameras, smart home automation, and virtual and physical personal assistants, including robotics, were cited as potential areas of expansion.

BofA also flagged Apple's departure from a net cash neutral objective as a signal the company could increase spending on research and development, capital expenditure and mergers and acquisitions, areas not emphasized under Cook but that the pace of AI innovation may now demand.