I am certain many would disagree, and for good reasons, but I think if Apple would acquire Tesla, which probably would require about $70B worth of cash and/or stock swap, many problems would be solved.
Tesla and Elon would no longer need to seek funding and talk to investors directly. And gain access to Tim Cook's supply chain and manufacturing leverage power and experience.
For Apple, Apple will be able to fold its Project Titan and CarPlay projects into Tesla and immediately gain access to charging stations and battery technologies.
Of course, the merger assumes Elon would be content running only the product and engineering side of businesses. Steve Jobs apparently did, but I am not sure Elon would be "fine" being under Tim Cook's leadership.
That would be a blockbuster of a deal that would send waves through two industries.
But while there are many potential synergies were it to happen, it wouldn't necessarily be a smooth road.
Tesla's strength is not in building cars, it's in the battery technology, battery supply chain, and charger network it has built. While it has managed to create a manufacturing operation, and the cars are very good in many respects, the "car" part is not their strong point, doesn't separate them from the rest of the OEMs. In terms of manufacturing, they're painfully behind after betting big and losing to processes dating back a century.
Apple has expert supply chain management, at least in the CE realm, but no experience in building durable and white goods like cars and appliances. They would have to partner with an existing OEM, or a contract builder like Magna Steyr to build the vehicles, and the first approaches they've made were rejected. What somebody like Magna, Multimatic, or Valmet does is not what Foxconn does, so an army of cheap Chinese labor isn't going to switch right over from cranking out iPhones to cars.
It's a mystery what state Project Titan is in, and how good it is compared to the rest, but it has been a troubled project, and I wouldn't automatically assume that has caught up to an acknowledged leader like Waymo, given the lead the latter has, and ample evidence of how difficult it is to overcome. Lessons may have been learned from the Maps fiasco, but the circumstances are still very similar, and the outcome could be as well.
It's an interesting idea, and could work, but no slam dunk, even when you don't consider the personalities and other potential management questions that would arise.
