Apple Inc has the opportunity to buy Tesla Inc, the electric car manufacturer founded by Elon Musk. But unfortunately this opportunity was not explored by Apple.
This was conveyed by Tesla CEO Elon Musk via his personal Twitter account on December 22, 2020. In that tweet Elon Musk revealed that once he had considered selling Tesla to Apple but Apple CEO Tim Cook was not interested.
“During the darkest days of the Model 3 [electric car] program, I contacted Tim Cook (Apple CEO) to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our current value). He refused to meet,” wrote Elon Musk as quoted from CNBC International, Wednesday (23/12/2020).
It’s a rare confession from Elon Musk who is known to be very confident with Tesla. Even Tesla has now made him the second richest person in the world because of the soaring stock price.
In 2018, Elon Musk publicly said the auto business was “hell”. Moreover, he even called himself sleeping in factories trying to solve the problems the company was having while trying to start mass-producing its Model 3 electric sedans.
Tesla and Apple are known to compete with
Tesla and Apple is also known to be competing to attract the best talent in and outside Silicon Valley. In 2015, Musk called Apple Tesla’s grave. “If you don’t make it at Tesla, you work for Apple,” he quipped.
In July 2018, Apple again hired Doug Field for a smart car project, he is a former Apple executive who had moved to Tesla. When Doug Field returned with a number of his subordinates.
Apple and Tesla did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CNBC International.
On Tuesday, Elon Musk also commented on the lithium iron phosphate battery that Apple will use in the smart car it is developing and plans to produce in 2024.
“Weird, if true,” wrote Elon Musk. “Tesla is already using iron-phosphate for a mid-range car made at our Shanghai factory. – Monocell is electrochemically impossible, because the ~ 100X max voltage is too low. Maybe it means cells that are bonded together, like our structural battery pack?”
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