Highlights for this morning: Tim Cook steps down as Apple CEO, Bezos' startup raises $10 billion

Apple announced that CEO Tim Cook will step down on September 1 after more than a decade at the helm of the company. Jeff Bezos-backed startup Project Prometheus is close to raising $10 billion at a valuation of $38 billion. These and other topics are covered in our review of key events for the morning of April 21.

Apple has announced that CEO Tim Cook will step down on September 1 after more than a decade at the helm of the company and move into the role of chairman, Yahoo Finance writes. He will be succeeded by senior vice president of hardware engineering John Ternus. Cook called Apple's leadership "the greatest privilege" and expressed confidence in his successor.

Ternus has been with Apple since 2001 and has led hardware engineering since 2013. He has been involved in key product launches, including the iPhone and Mac, and is known for his attention to detail: in one project, he insisted on changing even small details such as screw design to meet company standards, the publication points out.

Jeff Bezos' artificial intelligence lab is close to a deal to raise about $10 billion in a new funding round that values startup Project Prometheus at $38 billion, the Financial Times reported, citing sources. The deal could close soon, although final terms have not yet been approved. The investors are JPMorgan and BlackRock, among others.

The project focuses on developing AI solutions for engineering and manufacturing, from computers and cars to space technology. Bezos is among the early investors and is involved in the fundraising along with co-founder and CEO Vikram Bajaj. Other co-founders Sherjil Ozair and William Gass did not comment on the deal.

Amazon has agreed to invest up to $25 billion in Anthropic on top of the $8 billion already invested, strengthening its AI infrastructure partnership, CNBC writes. Of that amount, $5 billion will be invested immediately, and up to $20 billion more when commercial performance is achieved.

The deal runs at Anthropic's latest valuation of $380 billion. As part of the agreement, the company agrees to spend more than $100 billion on Amazon's AWS technology over 10 years and to use Trainium chips to train Claude's models, the channel points out.

SpaceX is holding private two-day meetings with analysts this week in a bid to win Wall Street's support ahead of one of the most anticipated IPOs in history, Reuters reports. The company is hosting experts at its key sites - a Starbase spaceport in Texas and a data center in Tennessee - where it will present its business, strategy and outlook. Some analysts, the agency's sources said, have already received SpaceX's confidential IPO registration application materials, although the document contains information restricted for dissemination.

The placement could take place as early as the end of June: SpaceX expects to raise about $75 billion and achieve a valuation of about $1.75 trillion. In preparation, the company will also hold a separate session with a breakdown of the financial model, so that analysts can form forecasts and recommendations for investors.

Shares in China's Victory Giant Technology rose as much as 60% at the start of trading after its biggest IPO in Hong Kong since the start of the year. The company, which supplies printed circuit boards for Nvidia, floated the securities at HKD209.88, and they were up as high as HKD306.8 during trading, CNBC reported. Victory Giant raised about HKD20.1 billion ($2.57 billion) in the offering, the largest Hong Kong IPO in seven months.

The strong debut reflects growing investor interest in tech offerings in Hong Kong despite market volatility due to conflict in the Middle East, the broadcaster said. In the first quarter of 2026, companies raised HKD109.9 billion through IPOs - almost six times more than a year earlier. Other notable offerings on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange include Montage Technology, MiniMax and Manycore Tech, whose shares also rose sharply on the first day of trading.

- Japan's broad Topix index rose 0.1 percent on April 21, while the Nikkei 225 rose 1.2 percent.

- Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index rose 0.1 percent, while mainland China's CSI 300 Index fell 0.4 percent.

- In South Korea, the Kospi index was up 2.3%, while the Kosdaq was almost unchanged.

- Australia's S&P/ASX 200 was down 0.2 percent.

- Futures on S&P 500 rose by 0.2%, futures on Nasdaq Composite - by 0.3%. Exchange contracts on Dow Jones Industrial Average - by 0.1%.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor