Tim Cook isn’t going anywhere just yet — not during Apple’s 50th anniversary celebrations, not with the company preparing to introduce its first foldable phone, not while the tech giant is trying to figure out how to beat the AI race.
In a sit-down interview with Good Morning America host and Pro Football Hall of Famer Michael Strahan this week, Cook, who turned 65 in November, said there was no truth to the rumors that he is considering retiring from Apple. He became CEO of the company in 2011, 13 years after joining from Compaq.
“I love what I do deeply. Twenty-eight years ago, I walked into Apple, and I’ve loved every day of it since,” Cook told Strahan. “We’ve had ups and downs, but the people I work with are so amazing. They bring out the best in me, and hopefully I can bring out the best in them.”
Strahan interviewed Cook during the Apple CEO’s visit to Wadleigh Secondary School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Harlem, where students use Apple technology through the company’s partnership with the nonprofit Save the Music.
Speculation about Cook stepping down has been circulating since last November, when the Financial Times cited unnamed sources saying that Apple was preparing to usher in a new CEO “as soon as next year.” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman threw water on that report, saying he “would be shocked if Cook steps down in the time frame outlined by the FT.”
During Cook’s tenure as CEO, Apple’s revenue has nearly quadrupled, with the tech giant adding dozens of new iPhone models, several more iPads, and updated Apple Watches and AirPods. This year, Apple has launched several new products, including the MacBook Neo, which at $599 has disrupted the budget laptop market. The company’s first foldable phone could come later this year.
Touch some grass
The GMA interview was short but wide-ranging, including Cook’s thoughts on how much people use their iPhones. Many studies estimate that people across most generations spend at least 4 hours a day on their phones, with millennials and Gen Z spending 5 to 6 hours.
When asked what he worries about most regarding Apple products’ impact on society, Cook weighed in, telling Strahan he doesn’t want people using iPhones “too much.”
“I don’t want people looking at the smartphone more than they’re looking in someone’s eyes,” Cook said, “because if they’re just scrolling endlessly, this is not the way you want to spend your day. Go out and spend it in nature.”
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AI and privacy
Cook told Strahan that AI “can be so positive,” but his response when asked whether he was “worried” about it was fairly flat.
“Technology doesn’t want to be good, and it doesn’t want to be bad,” Cook said. “It’s in the hands of the user and the hands of the inventor.”
Strahan questioned how much of iPhone users’ private lives are feeding Apple’s AI learning machine. Cook told him that because the smartphone is encrypted, Apple doesn’t have access to it. He went on to say: “When we can’t answer a question on your device, we send it to something called private cloud compute, which is essentially a big device in the sky that has the same kind of security and architecture as your phone.”
On its website, Apple says that it “does not use our users’ private personal data or user interactions when training our foundation models.”
To date, Apple has been cautious in diving into the AI scrum. While Amazon, Alphabet, Meta and Microsoft are spending nearly $700 billion combined on AI tech this year, Apple is “only” investing $14 billion.
Trump and tariffs
Cook has been criticized for being too cozy with the Trump administration: donating $1 million to President Donald Trump’s inauguration; giving him a 24-karat gold plaque; and attending a White House screening of Melania, a film about the First Lady.
The Apple CEO told Strahan that he’s “not a political person” on either side.
“I’m kind of straight down the middle, and I focus on policy,” Cook said. “So, I’m very pleased that the president and the administration is accessible to talk about policy.”
One of those policies has been tariffs, which Trump has imposed on many nations to varying degrees during his second term in office, purportedly to pressure companies to shift their manufacturing to the US. The president has largely spared Apple, which promised to invest $600 billion over four years to make more products in the US.
Cook told Strahan that the glass for the front and back of an iPhone will come out of Kentucky by the end of the year, and that 100 million chip engines will be manufactured in Arizona this year. He also noted that 20 billion semiconductors will be made in the US. “We’re a very proud American company, and we want to do as much here as we can,” Cook said.
