One of Tim Cook's top executives could be Apple CEO in a few years. Here are his most likely replacements, report says.

• CEO Tim Cook will be staying at Apple for at least three more years, Bloomberg reported.

• Cook previously said he hopes his successor will be an internal hire.

• According to Bloomberg, execs Jeff Williams and John Ternus could be potential successors.

Tim Cook won't be steering Apple's ship forever.

Cook, who succeeded Apple founder Steve Jobs, helped Apple cross the $3 trillion market cap mark — and may push the company past $4 trillion by 2025.

However, 63-year-old CEO is also thinking about who will come after him. In October, Cook told singer Dua Lipa on her podcast "At Your Service" that he hoped his successor would "come from within Apple."

And according to "several people familiar with Apple's inner workings" who spoke to Bloomberg, that is a very likely scenario.

According to the Bloomberg report, Cook will not leave for at least three years, but company insiders are considering several potential CEOs.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Jeff Williams, Chief Operating Officer

Per Bloomberg, Williams has been widely seen as Cook's logical successor since 2019, when he took over Apple's design studio following the departure of Chief Design Officer Jony Ive in 2019.

Williams was once called "Tim Cook's Tim Cook. Both men have been described as having similar leadership styles.

Williams oversaw the development of the Apple Watch and now manages Apple's worldwide operations. The executive recently announced the company was abandoning a decadelong effort to manufacture an Apple electric car.

However, company insiders told Bloomberg that because Williams is 61, he may not be a long-term leader.

John Ternus, Senior Vice President of Hardware Engineering

Company insiders told Bloomberg that because of Williams' age, John Ternus will most likely replace Cook once he leaves the company.

At Apple, Ternus leads the hardware engineering of iPhones, iPads, Macs, and AirPods and has been at the company for over two decades.

"Tim likes him a lot, because he can give a good presentation, he's very mild-mannered, never puts anything into an email that is controversial and is a very reticent decision-maker," one person close to Apple's executive team told Bloomberg. "He has a lot of managerial characteristics like Tim."

One person who spoke to Bloomberg, however, described the 49-year-old exec as "too junior."

Others told Bloomberg that he was not an "innovator" and pointed out that Ternus was behind the controversial introduction of the Touch Bar for MacBook keyboards, which was axed last year.

The less likely candidates

Bloomberg cited two other executives who could succeed Cook but are less likely to do so, according to one company insider who spoke to the publication.

Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of software engineering, is responsible for developing iOS and macOS.

Federighi is more publicly known than some of his other colleagues: The exec, in a leather jacket, shredded on a triple-necked guitar in a clip shown at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2023.

Deirdre O'Brien, senior vice president of retail — who Bloomberg described as a Cook confidant — is also in the running. The exec, who helped launch Apple's first retail stores in 2001, took on her current post in 2019.

If O'Brien were to take over as leader, she would be the first female CEO of Apple, which was founded in 1976.

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