ELON MUSK: It would be 'great' if Apple got into the car business
On Tesla's first-quarter-earnings conference call on Wednesday, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said that not only would it be "great" if Apple got into the car business, but that the company was not seeing engineers leave the company for Apple.
In the past several months, reports have said Apple is building a car, which some analysts think could compete with Tesla's electric-car offerings.
But Musk doesn't seem to view Apple as a threat, even though some Wall Street analysts think a car from Apple could be the new iPhone.
In 2014, Tesla made all of its patents public, a move designed to spur the broader electric-car industry. The broad message was that more activity in the electric-car industry, even in the form of competition, was a good thing for Tesla.
Moreover, since Tesla hasn't seen its engineers defect for Apple, Musk seems excited about the world's biggest company potentially entering the industry.
Yahoo's Justin Hyde noted that on the call, Musk said that five times as many people had moved to Tesla from Apple as had gone the other way. And this recruiting momentum, Hyde added, is a big part of the Silicon Valley culture, and as long as that momentum is on Tesla's side, it is likely to feel confident with its position as a company.
As for the first quarter, Tesla reported a smaller-than-expected loss, maintained its outlook for vehicle deliveries this year, and said it remained on track to deliver its new Model X SUV in the late third quarter.