Apple CEO Tim Cook refused a meeting on acquiring Tesla, says Elon Musk

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said he once considered selling the electric car maker to Apple, but the iPhone maker's CEO blew off the meeting.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Elon Musk said he reached out to Apple CEO Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for "one-tenth of our current value").

Tim Cook refused to take the meeting. Tesla's market value is $616 billion, as of the close of trading Tuesday. One-tenth of that is $61.6 billion.

Musk said he sought out the meeting with Cook during the darkest days of the Model 3 program, a reference to Tesla's first electric car designed for the mass market.

As recently as 2018, Tesla was struggling to meet its vehicle production goals and turn a profit.

Tesla's fortunes have changed since then. The automaker is finally making money on a consistent basis after years of losses and continues to hit milestones for deliveries of its vehicles.

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Its shares have soared 665 per cent this year alone, making it the world's most valuable automaker and among the top 10 biggest US companies in the S&P 500 index, which Tesla entered on Monday.

Musk's tweet followed published reports suggesting Apple was working on developing its own electric cars.

Apple Inc is reportedly working on self-driving car technology and is planning to produce a car or vehicle for consumers by 2024. However, it may be delayed to 2025 due to the pandemic.

The efforts towards the self-driving car reportedly started in 2014, and the Cupertino-based tech giant even roped in its former employee Doug Field — who had also worked in Tesla — in 2018 to oversee the project.

In 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook spoke about Apple’s autonomous driving software.

(Disclaimer: Additional background information has been added to this PTI copy for context)