Apple may be the most profitable company in the world, but not even that distinction is enough for it to escape the contempt of Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk.
In an interview with German newspaper Handlesblatt, Musk was disdainful of Apple’s reported efforts to build an electric car, to hit the market by 2019. When the interviewer asked whether Musk was worried about the fact that Apple had hired some of Tesla’s “most important engineers,” Musk shot back: “Important engineers? They have hired people we’ve fired. 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.”
When asked whether he takes the competition seriously, Musk twisted the knife, saying:
See the Factory Where Tesla Is Building its New SUV
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Eyewitness Accounts From the Trump Rally Shooting
- Politicians Condemn Trump Rally Shooting: ‘No Place for Political Violence in Our Democracy’
- From 2022: How the Threat of Political Violence Is Transforming America
- ‘We’re Living in a Nightmare:’ Inside the Health Crisis of a Texas Bitcoin Town
- Remembering Shannen Doherty , the Quintessential Gen X Girl
- How Often Do You Really Need to Wash Your Sheets?
- Welcome to the Noah Lyles Olympics
- Get Our Paris Olympics Newsletter in Your Inbox
Contact us at letters@time.com