Forbes estimates Tim Cook’s net worth at $3.1B (real-time, 10 Oct 2026, #1378 in the world). Most of it is his Apple shares: Apple’s latest filing lists 3,280,295 Apple shares, less than 1% of the company. It is an outside estimate that moves with the share price, not a disclosed figure.
Correction (10 Oct 2026): this page previously showed undated or unsourced net-worth figures. We replaced them with one dated, named estimate and the holdings disclosed in filings, and we now tag every input as filing, reported or estimate.
How we source: figures on this page come from the company’s own filings (SEC 10-K, 10-Q, prospectus and earnings releases, or its annual report), with the period stated next to each number; outside estimates appear only labelled, with their source and date. Last refreshed October 2026. Our methodology.
The most widely cited figure is Forbes’s: $3.1B on 10 Oct 2026, #1378 in the world. It is an outside estimate, not a figure Cook or any company has disclosed.
Other outlets publish different figures, and each changes with share prices. Use one source consistently, and always note its date.
How the fortune was built
Tim Cook’s fortune comes from Apple. The timeline below tags each step: SEC filing when it comes from a filing, Reported when it comes from Forbes’s profile.
Tim Cook: the fortune and its milestones Estimate
Before the chart: 1998 Joins Apple ยท 2011 Becomes CEO ยท 2011 Paid largely in stock
12026 ยท Holdings in the proxy SEC filing
Forbes annual list estimates and the real-time estimate (gold); Forbes. Milestones as tagged in the timeline below.
After 12 years at IBM and a short spell at Compaq (Forbes).
2011Reported
Becomes CEO
Succeeds Steve Jobs after serving as chief operating officer (Forbes).
2011โReported
Paid largely in stock
Forbes says he has sold more than $1 billion of Apple shares over the years.
Jan 2026SEC filing
Holdings in the proxy
Apple’s proxy lists 3,280,295 shares; his 2025 total compensation was $74.3 million.
What drives the number
Every estimate of Cook’s wealth is the same model: his Apple shares, times Apple’s share price, plus proceeds of past share sales and other assets. The share count is public, so most of the movement comes from the share price.
Using one consistent source, Forbes’s annual World’s Billionaires lists, the estimate moved from $1.3B (Apr 2021) to $2.8B (Mar 2026). Because most of it is Apple stock, the line largely tracks the share price.
Estimated net worth over time Estimate
Apr 2021
$1.3B
Apr 2022
$2.0B
Apr 2023
$1.8B
Apr 2024
$2.0B
Apr 2025
$2.5B
Mar 2026
$2.8B
10 Oct 2026
$3.1B
Annual World’s Billionaires list estimates (Forbes); gold bar = real-time estimate on 10 Oct 2026. All figures are estimates by the same outlet, so they are comparable with each other, not with other outlets’ numbers.
Both lines indexed to 100 at the Apr 2021 list. Net worth: Forbes list estimates and real-time estimate. Share price: month-end close in each list’s month, split-adjusted (Yahoo Finance); latest point: close on 9 Oct 2026. Index levels, not dollars; the gap shows what else moved the estimate (share sales, gifts, other assets).
โThe value of private holdings, cash or property.
โShares sold or given away outside the filing dates.
What he does now
Cook remains Apple’s CEO and has served on Nike’s board since 2005 (Forbes). His 2025 total compensation was $74.3 million (Apple proxy).
The Business Engineer view
What Cook’s fortune really measures
Unlike founders, his wealth comes from pay and stock awards, not a founding stake. For founders with filed stakes, the share count is public and only the price moves; the estimate is then close to a measurement.
Read any net-worth figure with three questions: who estimated it, on what date, and at what share price. For the company behind the fortune, see Apple on FourWeekMBA.
Frequently asked questions
What is Tim Cook's net worth?
Forbes estimates Tim Cook’s net worth at $3.1B (real-time, 10 Oct 2026, #1378 in the world).
How did Tim Cook make his money?
Mainly through Apple. Joins Apple: After 12 years at IBM and a short spell at Compaq (Forbes). Becomes CEO: Succeeds Steve Jobs after serving as chief operating officer (Forbes).
Apple’s latest filing lists 3,280,295 Apple shares, less than 1% of the company (Apple 2026 proxy statement (filed 8 Jan 2026)).
Why do Tim Cook net worth figures differ?
Each outlet multiplies an estimated share count by the share price on a given day and adds its own estimate of other assets, so figures differ by source and by date.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
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