Wow, this rumor is out of control.
I guarantee they are not working on a complete vehicle. Probably battery systems and some type of autonomous control, if anything.
I think this is just a moonshot program to attract engineering talent.
I guarantee they are not working on a complete vehicle. Probably battery systems and some type of autonomous control, if anything.
I think this is just a moonshot program to attract engineering talent.
They certainly have the chutzpah to try, and they have an ocean of money to spend overseas. A longshot bet on building another trillion dollar product might be preferable to paying corporate and personal income tax on dividends.
Apple may have almost $200 billion but where would they get the batteries, to focus on just one aspect of it? Tesla found there literally wasn't enough battery supply and decided to build the largest battery factory in the world from scratch to provide what they needed, and it's been in planning for years and won't be ready for a few years to come. And again, money isn't the blocking issue. It would be laughable to suggest that Apple could just conjure up a comparable factory out of nowhere....it would take them just as long.
And given their penchant for overseas labor, it would take even longer. Don't even get me started on that. It's like Elon has said: importing phones in bulk is one thing; importing cars or large heavy things is wholly another. They would really have to do it in the US, which could hardly be done in secrecy. Car manufacturing plants tend to be large and obvious.
My point: maybe they'll get into it, but it won't come out of nowhere and it will certainly take a LOT of time regardless of their bank account. Tesla will be many years ahead of them for the long-term foreseeable future.
As a matter of fact, Apple's last quarterly profit was $18bn, while Tesla's valuation, is $25bn. They could buy a company like Tesla every two quarters..
Furthermore, maybe what they are trying to do is to create some in-house talent, in preparation for future purchases. Perhaps so that they can have their own employees join those of the acquired company..