After 16 Years, Apple Abandons Work on Electric Car
Rumors and stock premia and more rumors and now 16 years after plans to build an Apple electric car began with founder Steve Jobs in 2008, it’s over!
According to people with knowledge of the matter, the mega-cap tech company is abandoning one of the most ambitious projects in the history of the company – its effort to build an electric car.
Apple made the disclosure internally Tuesday, surprising the nearly 2,000 employees working on the project, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the announcement wasn’t public.
The decision was shared by Chief Operating Officer Jeff Williams and Kevin Lynch, a vice president in charge of the effort, according to the people.
As Bloomberg highlights, the decision to ultimately wind down the project is a bombshell for the company, ending a multibillion-dollar effort that would have vaulted Apple into a whole new industry. The tech giant started working on a car around 2014, setting its sights on a fully autonomous electric vehicle with a limousine-like interior and voice-guided navigation.
So one might expect the share price to decline… But, hey there’s a reason why the share price is rising…
…because Apple is shifting its focus to – drum roll please – many employees on the team working on the car — known as the Special Projects Group, or SPG — will be shifted to the artificial intelligence division under executive John Giannandrea.
Those employees will focus on generative AI projects, an increasingly key priority for the company.
