Apple stock worth $289,500 after Tim Cook's 2011 CEO start

Tim Cook’s first day as Apple’s CEO in August 2011 followed a 5% stock drop after Steve Jobs resigned and publicly named him as successor. A $10,000 investment in Apple at the market open on that day would have bought 27.4 shares at roughly $365 each. Those shares have since split three times and grown to 766.9 shares, worth about $241,500 today. Reinvest the dividends Cook reintroduced in 2012 and the stake is worth closer to $289,500.

Cook took over a company with a strong product lineup and turned it into a global powerhouse. He expanded iPhone availability to every major carrier, launched Apple Watch and AirPods—now a $36 billion business—and grew the services unit from $3 billion to a $120 billion profit engine. Under his leadership Apple became the world’s most valuable company and built a loyal ecosystem that keeps customers inside the Apple universe for years.

Cook will hand the CEO reins to John Ternus on September 1 after 13 years at the helm. Sales are still rising, driven by iPhone upgrades and a surprise Mac rebound powered by the new low-cost “MacBook Neo.” Investors expect strong holiday-quarter results thanks to a long-awaited Siri overhaul. Apple’s stock trades near record highs, giving Ternus a healthy balance sheet and a clear roadmap.

Ternus’s first big task will be steering Apple into the AI era without compromising its privacy promise. The company has already signed a decade-long deal with Broadcom for custom AI chips and plans to do as much on-device processing as possible. How well Apple balances cutting-edge AI features with its reputation for user trust could determine whether Cook’s final legacy keeps compounding—or starts to crack.