Elon Musk had jokes when Apple started hiring his former engineers—until he needed Apple to buy his company.



It was classic Musk: flippant, cutting, and aimed directly at one of the most powerful companies on Earth. Apple, he said, was where you ended up when you washed out at Tesla. But not long after that punchline, Musk found himself in the middle of a financial meltdown so severe, he quietly reached out to Apple's CEO with a shocking offer: take Tesla off his hands. For cheap.



In a December 2020 post on X, Musk revealed that during the &#34;darkest days of the Model 3 program,&#34; he had approached Tim Cook to discuss a full acquisition—at just 10% of Tesla's then-current value. &#34;He refused to take the meeting,&#34; Musk wrote. No sale. No bailout. Just a hard pass.



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The Tesla–Apple drama had been brewing for years. Back in 2015, while Apple was rumored to be building an electric car under its secretive Project Titan initiative, Musk sat down with German financial paper Handelsblatt. That interview, later cited in a GQ profile, is where he dropped the now-famous line: &#34;We always jokingly call Apple the ‘Tesla Graveyard.' If you don't make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple. I'm not kidding.&#34;



He wasn't finished. Musk scoffed at Apple's ability to make cars, comparing its hardware chops to wristwear. &#34;Did you ever take a look at the Apple Watch?&#34; he said. &#34;Cars are very complex compared to phones or smartwatches. You can't just go to a supplier like Foxconn and say: Build me a car.&#34;



But while Musk mocked Apple's EV plans publicly, behind the scenes, Tesla was unraveling. The Model 3 rollout in 2017 and 2018 was so chaotic that Musk later admitted the company was &#34;single-digit weeks&#34; from bankruptcy. He told Axios in 2018 that production delays and cash burn nearly wiped Tesla out. That's when he tried to pitch the company to Apple—at a fraction of its future worth.



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Cook, according to his own statement to The New York Times in 2021, denied ever speaking to Musk. &#34;I've never spoken to Elon,&#34; he said, though he expressed admiration for what Tesla had built.



Apple, for its part, never delivered a car. Project Titan, after over $10 billion in investment and years of internal turmoil, was shut down in early 2024, according to Bloomberg. Many of the engineers were shifted to Apple's AI division.



That pivot triggered yet another wave of Musk attacks. When Apple announced optional ChatGPT integration for Siri, Musk called it &#34;an unacceptable security violation&#34; and threatened to ban all Apple devices from Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI facilities. &#34;It's patently absurd that Apple isn't smart enough to make their own AI,&#34; he posted, &#34;yet is somehow capable of ensuring that OpenAI will protect your security &amp; privacy!&#34;



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Fast forward to last month, and the tone softened. When an X user suggested Apple should scrap Siri and integrate xAI's Grok instead, Musk didn't swing. He shrugged and opened the door. &#34;I'm down,&#34; he replied, signaling he would be open to a collaboration that once would have been unthinkable.



The same CEO who joked that Apple was the Tesla Graveyard later tried to sell Tesla during its darkest moment. Apple passed. Tesla survived. Apple's car never made it out of the garage. Now the rivalry has moved from cars to AI, and Musk—after years of shots and near misses—sounds perfectly willing to work with the company he once laughed off.



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Image: Imagn

Elon Musk once mocked Apple as the 'Tesla Graveyard' but later tried to sell Tesla to Apple during a financial crisis for 10% of its value. Apple CEO Tim Cook refused the offer. Despite the rivalry, Tesla survived, and Apple's car project was eventually shut down. Recently, Musk expressed openness to collaborating with Apple on AI, signaling a potential shift in their relationship.

- Elon Musk initially mocked Apple's hiring of former Tesla engineers, calling Apple the "Tesla Graveyard."  
- During a financial crisis, Musk sought to sell Tesla to Apple for only 10% of its value, but Apple CEO Tim Cook declined to meet with him.  
- The rivalry between Tesla and Apple shifted from electric cars to AI, with Musk recently indicating openness to collaboration with Apple after years of criticism.

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Elon Musk 'Jokingly' Called Apple The 'Tesla Graveyard' — Then Tried Selling Tesla To Apple During Its 'Darkest Days' For 10% Of Its Worth