Why Tim Cook says he doesn't think about his legacy

• Tim Cook discusses his legacy in an interview with tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee.
• Cook says that, like Apple, he's more focused on looking forward than back.

Steve Jobs famously said he wanted to "put a ding in the universe," and many would argue bringing the iPhone to market did just that.

So what will be the legacy of his successor, Tim Cook?

The Apple CEO said he hasn't given it much thought — and it's for others to decide.

Cook spoke to tech YouTuber Marques Brownlee in an interview released Wednesday, saying that "legacy is something that is defined by other people."

While he's content with letting the public determine his own, Cook said his focus is looking forward, not dwelling on the past. This mirrors Apple's ethos, he said, especially amid its recent major announcements at WWDC 2024 earlier this week.

"You won't find a museum here," Cook said. "We would have lots of things that you might like to see and reminisce about, but we just don't."

And Apple doesn't have much time to reminisce — it's been playing catch-up in the AI arms race in recent years since the launch of ChatGPT.

But the wait to see what Cook had up his sleeve is over, now that Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, its suite of generative AI tools baked into the operating systems of its most popular devices.

For Apple, it could mark the beginning of a new era, and how Cook navigates the AI race could impact his legacy.

He's also overseen the launch of the Apple Watch and AirPods, growing sales from Apple's wearables business to the size of a Fortune 200 company, and built up Apple's services business with the launch of Apple TV+.

Most recently, he introduced Apple's first major new product category since the Watch: the Vision Pro. Apple is betting "spatial computing" is the future, and with the long-rumored Apple car project reportedly scrapped, the Vision Pro is "one of his last big swings as Apple CEO and will affect his legacy," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman wrote last year.

It's not clear when Cook will end his tenure at Apple, but he's said the company has a succession plan in place and in 2021 predicted he wouldn't still be CEO in 10 years. Last year, he told Dua Lipa in an interview that he doesn't plan on stepping down anytime soon, but that he wants his successor to come from inside Apple.

Cook acknowledged in the interview with Brownlee that, eventually, his time would come.

"At some point, there will be another CEO," Cook said. "And my whole focus in life will be on making them successful."