It’s no secret that General Motors, along with many other major automakers, was in deep water during the late 2000s, going so far as to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009. While this was certainly a strenuous time for The General, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs pondered on the efficacy of using this opportunity to purchase the struggling Detroit-based automaker.
According to a report from Bloomberg, it was the late Steve Jobs who first floated around the idea of Apple having a hand in the automotive industry. In the late 2000s, Jobs proclaimed that the tech company should have dominate technologies in all spaces that folks spend time in, including at home, at work, and on the road. It was during the 2008 financial crisis that the Apple Co-Founder even considered acquiring General Motors for a steep discount.
Of course, we all know that never happened, as Apple quickly decided to abandon this ideal because it figured it wouldn’t look good for the company, and that it should stick to focusing on the iPhone instead. Still, it’s interesting to ponder on the direction GM may have taken had the tech company bought it out.
In other Apple-related developments, the iPhone producer recently canned its homegrown Apple car project after roughly 10 years of development. Coming despite an announcement that the project would simply be delayed until 2026, Apple has now decided to focus on rolling out generative artificial intelligence (AI) projects.
While the tech company didn’t reveal exactly why it decided to end the Apple car project, there were likely a few contributing factors, including pricing and EV demand. As GM Authority has covered, all-electric vehicles have seen slower-than-expected consumer demand as of late, despite record U.S. sales in 2023, possibly due to high prices and the lack of a suitable charging infrastructure, along with waning public perception of self-driving cars in the past year. When considering that Apple’s EV was projected to start in the ballpark of $100,000, it begins to make sense as to why Apple elected to disband the project.
Subscribe to GM Authority for more GM competition news, GM business news, and around-the-clock GM news coverage.
Comments
The suits within GM would have certainly looked different by now. We wouldn’t be having the same software issues right now that’s for sure.
Yeah but you may have been only able to drive them on proprietary Apple roads.
“We wouldn’t be having the same software issues right now that’s for sure.”
The fruit company’s continuing rounds of emergency updates might beg to differ.
Steve Jobs would have probably been great for GM. Jobs had vision and a creative mind. Tim Cook not so much. All innovation left with Jobs.
Interesting to ponder how Jobs or Cook would’ve handled UAW negotiations. Esp. Cook with Fain.
Or how Apple’s margins, executive pay, and cash balance would’ve factored at the negotiation table…
Jobs probably would’ve tried to run the UAW out.
That’s why it wouldn’t had happened. UAW is too expensive. Apple makes big money because they have Foxconn’s $2 to $3 an hour Chinese workforce assembling phones.
Chances are Steve Jobs, along with his hand-picked hirees(sp?) would have provided the appropriate formula to bring GM back into a well-oiled productive manufacturing facility.
Big difference managing a couple of outsourced chip plant in China vs over 100 stamping, casting, powertrain, component, and assembly plants producing hundreds of various models around the world.
GM IS a well-oiled productive manufacturing enterprise.
AND, the GM Assembly Plant that a previous tech mogul, Ross Perot (EDS) “saved” in the 80’s is the most profitable assembly plant in the world today: GM’s Arlington TX Assembly.