• Markets: Stocks slipped yesterday as investors worried about new Middle East tensions after the US struck Iran for the first time since July on Sunday. But all three major indexes still managed to pull off a winning August.
• Stock spotlight: PG&E and Edison International took a big hit after California lawmakers blocked a bill that would have limited how much money people could recover from utilities when their equipment starts wildfires.

A NEW VERSION OF THE CEO IS AVAILABLE

Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Your first day at a new job is always stressful—remembering names, filling out documents, locating the office snacks—but new Apple CEO John Ternus takes the big desk from Tim Cook today under slightly more pressure as he leads the company into the AI future.

Ternus, 51, joined Apple in 2001 and made a name for himself overseeing the company’s hardware division. Now that he’ll be at the top, he is facing big challenges, including:

• Playing catch-up: The company was already behind when Apple Intelligence and Vision Pro landed with thuds in 2024. The next big moment is in two weeks, when Apple releases a new AI-powered Siri it hopes will compete with ChatGPT and Claude.
• Talent acquisition: Apple is no longer the most coveted destination for hardware talent; hundreds of former Apple employees have fled to OpenAI.
• Memory shortage: AI companies are gobbling up chips, making them scarcer and more costly for Apple, which is passing those expenses on to customers.

Cook’s legacy

When he replaced Steve Jobs in 2011, Cook was filling perhaps the biggest shoes in tech boss history and that came with questions of whether he could continue Apple’s enormous growth. The answer was a resounding yes—shares climbed 2,000% under his (Apple) watch, the company briefly reached a $5 trillion market cap in July, and after selling 72 million phones in 2011, Apple will sell 255 million this year, per Counterpoint Research estimates.

The 65-year-old Cook won’t be retiring and giving up his company discount at Apple Stores—he’s staying on as executive chairman, a role where he can continue to work as a liaison with President Trump, aka the guy who schmoozes to keep tariffs from crushing profits.

Hard launch: Cook will be in attendance for the company’s annual product event next Wednesday, but he won’t take the stage. Instead, Ternus will face the public for the first time as CEO to introduce a new foldable iPhone.—DL

      

Sponsored By PwC

PwC CEO and US Senior Partner Paul Griggs notes that AI is creating a workforce dividend. The question is, are you tapping into yours?

In this article, Griggs shares his POV on the debate about AI and jobs and how AI, when leveraged thoughtfully, can actually boost performance and enable capabilities that make new frontiers possible.

Together, AI and the human workforce have the potential to create a new springboard of capacity and resources. Not messily, not in place of, but symbiotically.

Read his take here and see what organizations can ask themselves to understand where they stand.

World

Tour de headlines

Tupac Shakur in 1994. Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

⚖️ Duane “Keffe D” Davis convicted in 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur. A Nevada jury found Keefe, now 63, guilty of murder with a deadly weapon for allegedly orchestrating the hip-hop legend’s killing 30 years ago. It marks the first conviction in the decades-old high-profile slaying, as the case had gone cold until Keefe said in interviews and a 2019 memoir that he had been involved. Keefe, a leader of the Crips, said that he had ordered the killing and procured the gun as revenge amid a feud with the Bloods, a rival gang Shakur was affiliated with. Despite having publicly revealed this, Keefe pleaded not guilty, claiming he had made up the story for money. He said yesterday in court that he wanted to appeal. He could face life in prison.