Elon Musk gave Apple 3 days to take his $5 billion deal. Tim Cook refused, so Musk made his next move
When Elon Musk offered Apple a satellite deal, Tim Cook chose caution over risk. The rivalry between innovation and control continues to play out.
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Back in August 2022, just as Apple was gearing up to unveil the iPhone 14, Elon Musk made a bold move. He approached Apple CEO Tim Cook with a high-stakes proposal: pay $5 billion to integrate SpaceX’s Starlink satellite technology into iPhones or prepare for direct competition. Musk gave Cook just 72 hours to make a decision.
Elon Musk vs. Apple
Tim Cook ed on Elon Musk’s offer and chose to play it safe. Instead of diving into a massive partnership with Starlink, Apple teamed up with Globalstar to enable limited emergency satellite capabilities on iPhones. The move was safer and less disruptive, especially considering the regulatory challenges and potential friction with Apple’s existing telecom partners. From Cook’s perspective, it was about protecting Apple’s ecosystem and maintaining tight control over experience.
Musk, however, wasn’t one to back down. In response, he doubled down by striking a deal with T-Mobile to launch “Direct to Cell” – a service designed to let regular smartphones connect directly to the internet via satellites, no special hardware required. It was a strong counterattack that positioned Starlink as a serious contender in the satellite communications space, offering wider and more accessible functionality than Apple’s limited solution.
Apple Watch Ultra 2Source: unsplash, photo by Alek Olson
Now, in 2025, the rivalry is still going strong. Apple is reportedly working on expanding its satellite features in devices like the Apple Watch Ultra 3 (which is expected to be revealed this September), while Starlink continues to scale its service globally. This ongoing face-off reflects a much bigger picture: the tension between rapid innovation and strategic caution. While Musk pushes boundaries to disrupt industries, Apple carefully weighs control, risk, and long-term stability.
At the same time Elon Musk is talking about a bigger shift on the horizon – the decline of smartphones altogether. For Musk, this ties into his Neuralink brain-computer interface ambitions, while Cook is pretty sure smartphones aren’t going anywhere anytime soon and will remain a key part of our daily lives.
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