Steve Jobs' Biographer Walter Isaacson Is Writing a Book About Elon Musk

Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Steve Jobs, is penning a book about entrepreneur and business magnate Elon Musk, according to Musk.

"If you're curious about Tesla, SpaceX & my general goings on, @WalterIsaacson is writing a biography," tweeted Musk on Thursday.

In subsequent tweets, Musk revealed that Isaacson had been shadowing him "for several days so far," and said he thought all the author's biographies were good, but he "particularly liked" Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin.

Apple and Tesla have been at odds since Apple started working on the ‌Apple Car‌ project and have notoriously poached employees from one another. Back in 2015, Musk famously called Apple the "Tesla Graveyard," and said "If you don't make it at Tesla, you go work at Apple."

In December, Musk claimed that he had attempted to speak with Apple about a possible acquisition of Tesla at one point in Tesla's early days, but Apple CEO Tim Cook refused to meet with him.

More recently, Musk criticized Apple's use of cobalt in its products and implied that its business model was a "walled garden" because Apple dictates what software can be installed on the iPhone and requires companies to use its ‌App Store‌.

Just last month, it was reported that Musk once demanded that he be made Apple CEO in a brief discussion of a potential acquisition with ‌Tim Cook‌. Musk has since personally refuted the claim, and even denied that he and Cook have ever spoken or written to each other.

As for Isaacson, since the publication of his best-selling Jobs biography in 2011, the writer has spoken variously about Apple-related topics with keen insight, likely as a result of his deep dive into the company when Jobs was at the helm.

In 2017, he remarked that Apple was no longer the most innovative company, and singled out Apple's lack of movement in the virtual assistant space as an example of where the company had been left behind by the likes of Google and Amazon.

In 2019, Isaacson also revealed that he had "softened" parts of Jobs' biography, particularly criticisms Jobs had made about ‌Tim Cook‌ for not being a "product person."

Isaacson's biography of Jobs went on to be the basis for Aaron Sorkin's screenplay of the Danny Boyle-directed film "Steve Jobs." The film was well received by critics, earning four Golden Globe Award nominations and two Academy Award nominations.