Musk Says He Has No Interest in Buying TikTok

Despite recent reports to the contrary, Elon Musk has no plans to buy TikTok.

That’s according to comments from Musk himself last month at the WELT Economic Summit in Germany, according to a video posted Saturday (Feb. 8) by The WELT Group.

“I haven’t made a bid for TikTok, nor do I have any plans regarding what I would do if I owned it,” Musk said in the video.

The multibillionaire’s name was mentioned last month as a possible buyer as the deadline to a ban on TikTok ticked down in the U.S. American lawmakers had voted last year to compel ByteDance, TikTok’s owner, to either sell the video sharing platform or risk being banned in the U.S., legislation born out of national security concerns.

That ban briefly went into effect on Jan. 19, though President Donald Trump — just before taking office — promised he would not enforce the law, and TikTok began restoring services. Trump later signed an executive order giving ByteDance more time to find a solution.

And while ByteDance has said that it was not planning to sell TikTok, some investors have shown interest in purchasing the platform.

Just not Musk. While he spent $44 billion to buy Twitter, he said during the WELT conference that was a “highly unusual” purchase, sparked by his wish to “preserve freedom of speech in America.”

“I usually build companies from scratch,” added Musk, whose other companies include Tesla, Starlink and the artificial intelligence (AI) firm xAI.

Meanwhile, Trump last week signed an executive order that created America’s first sovereign wealth fund, and said that fund could invest in TikTok.

“As an example, TikTok, we’re going to be doing something perhaps with TikTok, perhaps not; if we make the right deal, we’ll do it, otherwise we won’t,” the president said in a video posted to X by the White House’s official “rapid response” account, Rapid Response 47. “… And we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund, whatever we make.”

Trump has spoken of reaching a deal in which the U.S. would retain 50% ownership of TikTok. Among the possible investors who have expressed interest are social media star “MrBeast” and AI company Perplexity AI, which hopes to merge with TikTok.