Elon Musk Says "No Interest in Buying TikTok"

Elon Musk has said he has no interest in buying TikTok, the popular social video app that the United States has tried to ban over national security concerns over its Chinese owner Bytedance.

Musk made the comments, his first on the subject of buying TikTok, at a conference in Germany hosted by billionaire Matthias Döpfner, CEO of German media conglomerate Axel Springer, last month.

“I have not made an offer to buy TikTok. I have no plans for what I would do if I owned TikTok,” Musk said during a virtual appearance at the conference. Musk noted that he does not use TikTok.

“I don’t really put a lot of effort into buying TikTok. I usually build companies from scratch,” Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 before renaming the social media service X, said.

Bloomberg reported in January that Chinese officials were weighing whether to let the world’s richest person — and a close ally of President Donald Trump — take over TikTok’s U.S. operations if the company failed to fend off the ban. Under one scenario, Musk’s X could take control of TikTok US and run the business together, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order temporarily halting a forced sale or ban of TikTok, giving the app and its Chinese parent company more time to reach an agreement. The order came hours after Trump’s inauguration, which was attended by ByteDance CEO Xu Qiu.

The order is the latest twist in Washington’s years-long effort to ban the app over security concerns. But Trump, who called for a ban during his first term, has since changed his mind after the app helped him win over younger voters, saying: “We won the youth vote. I think I won it with TikTok, so it’s a special place for me.”

Musk, who is very much like Trump, can always change his mind.

Trump has said he would be open to Musk, who has donated more than $250 million to his presidential campaign, or Oracle CEO Larry Ellison buying the app as part of a joint venture with the U.S. government. 

This week, Trump also signed a separate executive order that he said would direct officials to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund that could be used to facilitate a sale of TikTok.