Tesla top boss Elon Musk on Wednesday revealed that he had proposed a sale of the electric car firm to tech giant Apple when he was struggling to ramp up Model-3 production.

The proposal was shot down as Apple CEO Tim Cook “refused” to take the meeting. 

The snub turned out to be a blessing in disguise for Tesla, which became one of the most profitable firms in the world, and for Elon Musk, who rocketed to the coveted position of second-richest man on Earth. 

The company’s shares increased by more than sevenfold this year and that reflects in Musk’s enviable net worth.

Musk made the revelation while replying to a tweet, which spoke of Apple’s plans of coming up with a self-driven electric car.

“During the darkest days of the Model 3 program, I reached out to Tim Cook to discuss the possibility of Apple acquiring Tesla (for 1/10 of our current value). He refused to take the meeting,” Musk revealed.

What is new is that Apple claimed to make a battery which has never been seen before, the science geek gave piece of his mind to the proposition. 

“Strange, if true. Tesla already uses iron-phosphate for medium range cars made in our Shanghai factory. A monocell is electrochemically impossible, as max voltage is ~100X too low. Maybe they meant cells bonded together, like our structural battery pack?” Musk wrote countering the claims of the unprecedented battery technology, the news of which was first broken by Reuters on Tuesday. 

In percentage terms, Musk’s shareholders have on paper collected an annualized 90% return against Cook’s roughly 45% since 2016, Reuters reported.

Also read: Elon Musk’s net worth jumps to $167.3 billion, Tesla may join S&P 500 Index soon

Looking at the other side of the coin, Tesla is now worth more than $600 billion, against less than $50 billion back in 2016.

Apple’s market value has swollen by more than $1.5 trillion over the same period to $2.2 trillion.