Elon Musk reveals he looked to sell Tesla to Apple for a fraction of its current value

Elon Musk has confirmed rumors that he tried to sell Tesla to Apple not so long ago, but Apple CEO Tim Cook wouldn’t even take the meeting.

Cook probably regrets it since Musk said that he was willing to let Tesla go for 1/10th of its current value.

There have been numerous rumors regarding Tesla and Apple over the years.

They have been competing for talent for a long time, even more so since Apple launched its own venture in the automotive industry.

It led to Musk making his famous comment that “Apple is Tesla’s graveyard” regarding the Cupertino company hiring former employees of the electric automaker.

In 2013, the CEO reportedly looked into selling Tesla as the automaker was having difficulties ramping up production of the Model S.

In the Elon Musk biography by Ashlee Vance, it was revealed that Musk and Larry Page, the head of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), had a deal for the latter to purchase Tesla, but it fell through.

At the time, there were also rumors of Musk meeting with Apple’s mergers and acquisitions chief Adrian Perica, as he likely had to seek competing bids.

Tesla pulled through the difficult time, but it wasn’t the last of the company’s troubles. Now Musk confirmed on Twitter today that he reached out to Apple to sell Tesla during the “darkest days” of the Model 3 program:

During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our current value). He refused to take the meeting.

Musk didn’t confirm the timing, but he often discussed what he called “production hell” when ramping up the manufacturing of the Model 3 from 2017 to early 2019.

As for 1/10th of Tesla’s current value, that would be roughly $60 billion.

Musk’s new comments on Apple comes amid rumors that Apple could launch its own autonomous electric car in 2024.

Tesla’s CEO seemed unimpressed by the rumors, which came from Reuters and stated that the vehicle could feature a battery cell with an LFP chemistry, which Tesla already uses, and possibly even a similar structural battery pack design to what Tesla unveiled during its battery day a few months ago.