Elon Musk wanted to sell Tesla to Apple for $61 bn, but Tim Cook didn't 'take the meeting'

Tesla CEO Elon Musk never finds it difficult to make headlines these days. His companies, Tesla and SpaceX, are  cruising to new heights every day and he is busy replacing billionaires in the world's richest list. If nothing, there is social media it is in Musk's nature to not mince words, most often making it to the headlines.

In one such instance, Musk has revealed that he had approached Apple to explore a meeting on possible acquisition of Tesla when the carmaker was at one-tenth of its current valuation, before Tim Cook  blew off the meeting. In a tweet Tuesday, Musk said the Apple CEO Cook simply "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.

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 also commented on reports suggesting Apple is working on developing its own electric cars, noting that Tesla already uses some of the materials that Apple is planning to make its cars with.