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Apple

Apple’s 2026 Shareholder Meeting: All Eight Directors Elected as Key Proposals Pass

Apple’s 2026 annual meeting is complete: all eight director nominees won, three management proposals passed, and shareholders rejected the China Entanglement Audit.

By TheFinanceBase Team 4 min read

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Apple’s 2026 annual meeting was held virtually on February 24, 2026, at 8:00 a.m. Pacific time. Shareholders elected all eight board nominees, ratified Ernst & Young as auditor, approved an advisory executive-pay vote and extended the non-employee director stock plan. The only item rejected was the shareholder proposal called “China Entanglement Audit.”

Apple had announced the meeting and ballot items in its January 8 proxy materials. The final outcomes were reported in a Form 8-K filed on February 24, so the results—not just the pre-meeting agenda—are now the relevant record.

What Apple confirmed before the meeting

Apple set the meeting for Tuesday, February 24, 2026, at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time, as a virtual-only event at virtualshareholdermeeting.com/AAPL2026. The record date was January 2, 2026, meaning shareholders of record at the close of business that day were entitled to vote directly. Apple’s investor-relations page provided the meeting and access details: Apple investor relations.

Apple filed its definitive proxy statement on January 8, 2026. The materials included the meeting notice, proxy statement and fiscal-2025 Form 10-K; the filing is available through Apple’s SEC filings page and the SEC-hosted proxy.

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Shareholders needed a unique control number to enter the virtual meeting, vote during it and submit questions. Investors who held shares through a broker generally used the voting instruction form and control number supplied by that intermediary.

Who was nominated for Apple’s board?

Apple asked shareholders to elect eight directors to serve until the next annual meeting and until successors were elected and qualified. The proxy identified them as follows:

Nominee Identification in Apple’s proxy
Wanda Austin Former president and CEO of The Aerospace Corporation
Tim Cook Apple CEO at the time of the proxy
Alex Gorsky Former chair and CEO of Johnson & Johnson
Andrea Jung President and CEO of Grameen America
Art Levinson Apple board chair; founder and CEO of Calico
Monica Lozano Former president and CEO of College Futures Foundation
Ron Sugar Former chair and CEO of Northrop Grumman
Sue Wagner Co-founder and director of BlackRock

The board recommended a “For” vote on every nominee, Ernst & Young’s ratification, the executive-compensation advisory resolution and the amended director stock plan. It recommended “Against” the China Entanglement Audit proposal. Those recommendations appear in Apple’s additional proxy materials.

Final director-election results

All eight nominees received more votes for than against and were elected. The totals below are from Apple’s February 24 Form 8-K:

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Director For Against Abstained
Wanda Austin 9,077,916,399 40,654,561 17,836,844
Tim Cook 9,022,191,821 101,386,531 12,829,452
Alex Gorsky 9,001,470,972 117,520,533 17,416,299
Andrea Jung 8,607,730,931 512,347,459 16,329,414
Art Levinson 8,297,337,255 822,322,806 16,747,743
Monica Lozano 9,077,081,775 41,951,291 17,374,738
Ron Sugar 8,717,147,160 401,351,569 17,909,075
Sue Wagner 8,596,360,759 522,576,019 17,471,026

Levinson had the largest “against” total, but still won comfortably. “Elected” therefore does not mean unanimous. Apple’s proxy described a majority-vote standard for incumbent directors; because every nominee received the required affirmative support, the contingency process for an unsuccessful incumbent was not triggered.

How the other proposals turned out

Proposal Result Final vote
Ratification of Ernst & Young as independent registered public accounting firm for fiscal 2026 Approved 11,794,611,709 for; 202,435,745 against; 28,621,018 abstained
Advisory vote on executive compensation Approved 8,304,055,118 for; 781,645,634 against; 50,707,052 abstained; 2,889,260,668 broker non-votes
Amended and restated Non-Employee Director Stock Plan Approved 8,927,137,986 for; 178,910,631 against; 30,359,187 abstained; 2,889,260,668 broker non-votes
“China Entanglement Audit” shareholder proposal Rejected 129,158,181 for; 8,939,194,258 against; 68,055,365 abstained; 2,889,260,668 broker non-votes

The executive-pay item was a say-on-pay resolution, so its approval expressed shareholder support but did not create a binding compensation contract. Auditor ratification was a vote on the appointment, not a certification of audit quality.

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What the director stock-plan approval changed

Apple’s existing Non-Employee Director Stock Plan was scheduled to expire on November 13, 2027. The approved amendment extended the term to February 23, 2036. It authorizes equity compensation for non-employee directors; it was not a vote granting Tim Cook a new package or directly approving executive compensation. Apple filed the amended plan with its Form 8-K.

What “China Entanglement Audit” meant

The proposal asked for a shareholder-requested review concerning Apple’s business relationships and exposure involving China. Apple’s proxy recommended voting against it, saying the request was overly prescriptive and could constrain the board and management in conducting the company’s affairs. Shareholders rejected it by a wide margin.

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The result is a governance vote, not a regulatory finding. Rejection does not establish that China-related risks are absent, nor does it prove wrongdoing by Apple.

How to interpret Tim Cook’s vote

Cook’s February result elected him to Apple’s board. It did not itself appoint or reappoint him as chief executive officer. Apple separately announced in April 2026 that Cook would become executive chairman and John Ternus would become CEO effective September 1, 2026. That leadership succession is distinct from the annual director election: Apple’s succession announcement.

Voting details shareholders often miss

  • Shares purchased after January 2, 2026, generally were not entitled to vote at this meeting.
  • Broker-held investors needed their intermediary’s voting instructions and control number; merely watching the virtual meeting did not automatically confer voting rights.
  • Broker non-votes are reported separately. They are not votes against management and appear on some proposals but not others.
  • Anyone who missed the meeting can review the final results in Apple’s February 24 Form 8-K. Apple’s FAQ identifies February 24, 2026, as its most recent annual meeting: Apple investor-relations FAQ.

Bottom line for shareholders

Apple’s board retained shareholder backing in 2026: all eight nominees were elected, the auditor was ratified, say-on-pay passed, and the non-employee director stock plan was extended through February 23, 2036. The sole defeated item was the China Entanglement Audit proposal. The vote preserved board continuity and approved management’s principal proposals while leaving the China-related governance request without shareholder authorization.

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