Elon Musk’s brief encounter with Steve Jobs ended abruptly after the Apple co-founder was “super rude” to him

These days, Elon Musk is quite a significant figure – not only in technology or business, but practically everywhere you look. It seems like there’s always fresh news about him, ranging from his perspectives on the US versus China in the AI competition, his gaming abilities (or the lack thereof), to controversies such as the one with Reddit’s CEO or his opinions on Assassin’s Creed Shadows. However, let us take a step back to a time before he became a familiar name, when he encountered another tech icon and, to put it mildly, their encounter was not entirely harmonious.

The rocky history between Elon Musk and Apple

In a chat that was later recounted in an interview, Elon Musk shared his brief encounter with Apple’s co-founder Steve Jobs. This interaction happened at a gathering where Larry Page (co-creator of Google) introduced Musk to Jobs. Regrettably, the conversation didn’t turn out smoothly.

In the interview, Musk shared that Steve Jobs was “very impolite,” hinting that Jobs might have overlooked or disregarded him at their initial encounter. However, despite the uncomfortable interaction, Musk bore no ill-will. Regarding Jobs, he lauded him as a forward-thinking innovator in technology, stating that he produced “excellent products” and had an enchanting charm, which Musk referred to as Jobs’ unique “allure.” He also avoided elaborating on the incident further, preferring not to escalate drama.

Since the interview and their meeting, Musk has occasionally criticized Apple publicly. At one instance, he referred to Apple as the “Tesla Graveyard,” jokingly suggesting that Apple recruits people who didn’t succeed at Tesla. This remark was made when Apple was developing its own electric car, about which Musk wasn’t particularly hopeful.

Lately, he’s been strongly criticizing Apple for partnering with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT into Siri, labeling it as a “serious breach of security” and expressing concerns about the safety of user data in Apple’s care. He even threatened to prohibit the use of Apple devices within his companies if the partnership poses a genuine security threat.

To sum up, there’s been a continuous tension between Elon Musk and Apple – with both personal and business factors playing a role, and this conflict often being played out publicly.

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2025-05-15 12:32