We just witnessed the latest launch of the 2024 Apple Tesla Model 3, which Tim Cook talked about as being remarkable… That’s a lie. Yes, the 2024 Tesla Model 3 exists, but it is in no way from Apple. However, In a not-so-parallel universe, this could have happened. We don’t yet know if Apple was able to buy Tesla, but it’s very relevant.
As you may already know, this week we learned that Apple had canceled its electric car project and that, barring any major surprises, we will never see a vehicle under its brand. However, thanks to the versatile Elon Musk, we learned that Apple could have bought his company, Tesla. However, Tim Cook stood him up. At least that’s what he said.
Musk now “mocks” Apple, even though he wanted to sell his company to it in 2017
Analyzing every tweet from Elon Musk on his social network Twitter (almost no one calls him X, sorry, Elon) would be crazy. There is hardly a day when this does not cause controversy, more or less intentional. The fact is that in the Apple domain there was a tweet this week that is at least newsworthy. It is his reaction to the cancellation of the Apple Car.
Quoting another tweet In which this information about the farewell to the Apple car was given, the CEO of Tesla published two emojis: a waving face with its arm firmly above its head and a cigarette. Logically, interpretations are free, although the majority is that he was making fun of Apple. Be careful, this is in no way something aggressive or extremely harmful. After all, they are two emojis.
In any case, I think of this anecdote that Musk himself told a little over three years ago, also via Twitter. He commented that in 2017, “at Model 3’s darkest moment”, he summoned Tim Cook to negotiate a possible takeover of Tesla by Apple. However, Apple CEO refused to attend meeting. Verbatim words from Musk, although no statement on the matter has ever been released from Apple’s side.
Given what we’ve seen, would it have been in Apple’s best interest to buy Tesla?
We will no longer be able to know what the Apple Car would look like, but we can still question the artificial intelligence of the DALL-E 3 and obtain concepts like this
It is impossible to analyze the impact that Apple’s takeover of Tesla would have had. We can make all the assumptions we want, but the truth is that in the end it is very complex to predict. For economic reasons, and again according to Elon Musk, the acquisition It would not have cost Apple more than a tenth of what Tesla was then worth in 2020.
Based on this valuation from 2020, when Musk confirmed this anecdote, the company was valued at around $650 billion. And if Apple had bought it three years earlier, it could have cost around $70,000. We would now think of a treat, although once again we are playing with the advantage of the passage of time and with a different situation, since nothing tells us that the future of Tesla vehicles would have been the same if they had remained under the protection of Apple.
The fact that Tim Cook didn’t even sit down to talk to Elon Musk shows that in 2017 Apple still had high hopes of developing its own electric vehicle.
The fact is that the situation experienced this week makes it entirely legitimate to think that Apple was wrong. Or that he could have at least sat down with Musk to discuss the situation. It’s unclear what state their own car’s development was in in 2017, but it’s intuitive that they still saw a good goal if they continued down this path for another six years.
As we have already seen these days, Apple’s investment in the project has been enormous, exceeding 10 billion dollars, which is six times more than what it is estimated that it cost them to develop the first iPhone. And all this to find no progress, which meant delays in the roadmap, as well as radical changes in ideas about what the first Apple Car should be.
And all this so that in the end the electric car project under the Apple brand ends up in a drawer. A priori, forever, but who knows. For now, it has been disclosed that the investment will be allocated to the area of artificial intelligence, although not much is known about what has already been invested. It is estimated that many employees will lose their jobs due to the cancellation, while for economic reasons it is still possible to recover part of it by licensing or selling possible advanced technologies and even profiting from them in the new Apple CarPlay which will debut. year.
In any case, it’s always fun to do the exercise of imagining what this gift would have looked like with Apple as Tesla’s owner. Can you imagine Elon Musk as Apple’s VP of Engine Business? That would give us some room to play. So much for setting up an alternative media. Muskesfera wouldn’t have had a bad reputation…
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