Remember when the world assumed Apple’s future would be defined by the person in the turtleneck? Then it was the guy who ran operations. Now, in 2026, the wheel goes to John Ternus — a hardware engineer who has spent years quietly running Apple’s silicon and device teams. It’s a handover that says something about what the company thinks matters next. And it’s landing at the same moment Nvidia, the company that seemed untouchable, is betting on everything at once.
I review AI toolkits for a living, so I watch the money and the stack. Here’s what’s interesting about this particular moment: Apple just overtook Nvidia in valuation. Not by a little. The stock is up about 17% so far in 2026, outpacing most of its mega-cap peers thanks to a strong device cycle and market share gains over Android. Meanwhile, Nvidia is facing real AI challenges — and answering them by going wider, betting on the whole AI stack rathet’s the shape of the next few years, and you get to choose which end you’re on.
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