Apple CEO Tim Cook tells Dua Lipa how long he'll remain in the role

Tim Cook said his job is to 'make sure there's several for the board to pick from'

Tim Cook recently talked with pop singer Dua Lipa about how long he thinks his tenure at Apple will be and the iPhone maker’s succession planning.

"I don’t know how long I’ll be there," the CEO told Lipa about Apple on Friday. "I love it there, and I can’t envision my life without being there. So, I’ll be there a while."

He made the comments while chatting with the "Dance The Night" singer on the latest episode of the podcast "Dua Lipa: At Your Service."

Apple CEO Tim Cook with MacBooks

Apple CEO Tim Cook looks at a display of brand new redesigned MacBook Air laptop during the WWDC22 at Apple Park on June 06, 2022 in Cupertino, California. Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off the annual WWDC22 developer conference. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Lipa has done the podcast for three seasons so far. Some other notable guests who have appeared on the Grammy-award winning artist’s show in the past have included Greta Gerwig, Elton John, Monica Lewinsky and Nadia Murad.

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Lipa also asked Cook if there was a "succession plan that you’ve got."

Dua Lipa

Dua Lipa attends 2023 Variety Power Of Women at Mother Wolf on November 16, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Unique Nicole/WireImage via Getty Images / Getty Images)

"We’re a company that believes in working on succession plans, so we have very detailed succession plans. Because something that’s unpredictable can always happen," he told the singer. "I can step off the wrong curb tomorrow, and hopefully that doesn’t happen. I pray that it doesn’t."

He wouldn’t give any names of potential successors to Lipa.

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"I will say my job is to prepare several people for the ability to succeed, and I really want the person to come from within Apple, the next CEO," Cook said on the podcast. "So that’s my role, is to make sure there’s several for the board to pick from."

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Cook has helmed Apple since August 2011. His overall time at the tech giant has spanned a quarter of a century, with Cook having first come on board in 1998.

He moved into the CEO role after Steve Jobs, who along with co-founders Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne had formed the company back in 1976, stepped down. Jobs passed away in the fall of 2011 after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer and other health issues. 

The Apple logo on a store in Sydney

The Apple Inc. logo at one of the company's stores in Sydney, Australia, on Friday, March 18, 2022. The debut of Apple's latest iPhone brings a change to the way its U.S. customers can purchase the device, a move toward cutting wireless carriers out (Brent Lewin/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

Cook had said earlier in his appearance on "Dua Lipa: At Your Service" that becoming CEO of Apple was "beyond what I would have ever dreamed for myself." He also said he wanted to use some of his wealth to help children get more education and "help other people achieve the same dream that I achieved."

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The company has experienced major growth while Cook has led it, with Apple’s market capitalization sitting around $2.96 trillion as of Tuesday afternoon. 

Apple Inc

It made its most recent set of iPhones — the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max — available starting in September. The company followed that up in October with the latest versions of its iMac and MacBook Pros, all of which had a type of M3 chip.