Apple’s New CEO John Ternus Inherited One of the Toughest Jobs in Tech. Here Are His Biggest Challenges.

John Ternus is about to inherit a minefield. The incoming Apple CEO takes over in September with battles raging on nearly every front. The App Store is under direct judicial threat after Apple was found in contempt for charging a 27% commission on external purchases. The company is preparing to petition the Supreme Court while facing a separate DOJ lawsuit accusing it of unlawfully dominating the smartphone market. This week, Apple revealed it faces a potential $38 billion fine in India over App Store abuses.

Then there’s AI. Apple’s AI chief John Giannandrea formally leaves this month following delays in rolling out a more capable Siri. Rather than relying on its own models, Apple turned to Google’s Gemini and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to power Apple Intelligence features. The biggest challenge will be building Apple’s own AI capabilities instead of depending on third parties.

China also remains a constant balancing act. Apple is deeply dependent on Chinese supply chains and made uncomfortable concessions — removing VPN apps and storing Chinese users’ iCloud data on state-controlled servers.

But Ternus will have some support. Tim Cook will stay on as executive chairman to help Ternus navigate these challenges.