Apple abused me when I offered to sell them Tesla 2017, says boss Elon Musk and remembers his “darkest days”.
Tesla boss Elon Musk offered to sell the electric car company to the tech giant Apple – but said yesterday that he was insulted.
The billionaire tweeted in 2017: “During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook [the Apple boss] to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla for 1/10 of our current value. He refused to attend the meeting. ‘
Tesla was burning cash at the time and struggling with production problems.
“Darkest days”: Tesla boss Elon Musk claims that he turned to the CEO of the iPhone manufacturer, Tim Cook, about a takeover in 2017
It was valued at around $ 60 billion (£ 45 billion) while Apple hit a market cap of $ 1 trillion (£ 745 billion) that year.
Since then, Tesla has slumped in profitability, valued at just over £ 450 billion.
This week, automaker Apple joined the prestigious S&P 500 index, cementing its place as one of America’s blue-chip companies.
At one point, the Tesla boss worked 120-hour weeks and slept under his desk in the California factory when he was trying to fix production problems with the Model 3 sedan.
Analysts previously suggested Apple and Tesla might be a good match, and yesterday’s revelations came when 49-year-old Musk responded to a report that Apple is now trying to produce its own electric car by 2024.
Commenting on the claim that Apple is developing “radical” new batteries using lithium iron phosphate, the billionaire replied, “Strange if true.
“Tesla is already using iron phosphate in medium-haul cars manufactured at our Shanghai facility.”
