Elon Musk says he’s not buying TikTok. Speaking remotely at a German conference hosted by Mathias Doepfner, CEO of media giant Axel Springer yesterday, Elon shut down rumors that he was eyeing the popular short-video app.
“I have not put in a bid for TikTok,” Elon said plainly in a video call. “I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok. I literally don’t know.”
He doesn’t even use the app, for those wondering. “I’m not champing at the bit to acquire TikTok,” Elon added. This is his first-ever public comment on TikTok acquisition speculation. The Tesla boss explained that buying X (formerly Twitter) in 2022 was an unusual decision for him.
Elon said he doesn’t typically acquire existing companies, he prefers to build businesses from scratch. He bought X, he claimed, to protect freedom of speech, a cause he’s been pretty vocal about for years and years.
China pushes Elon as a potential TikTok buyer
Despite Elon’s lack of interest, Chinese officials have reportedly floated his name as a potential buyer of TikTok’s US operations. According to a January report from Bloomberg, Elon’s close ties to President Donald Trump may play a role.
Reportedly, one option under discussion would have Elon’s company, X, manage TikTok’s US branch if ByteDance loses its battle to prevent a permanent ban in the near future.
TikTok has been a political football for years. The US government has repeatedly raised national security concerns over ByteDance’s Chinese ownership. But ByteDance has refused to sell TikTok, digging in its heels as the drama drags on.
Trump was one of the loudest voices demanding a ban on the app during his first term. But things changed after TikTok helped him gain traction with younger voters. The president himself acknowledged the app’s role in his campaign success, saying, “We won the young vote. I think I won it through TikTok, so I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok.”
On Trump’s first day back in the White House, he signed an executive order that temporarily blocked the forced sale or shutdown of TikTok in the US. The order gave ByteDance more time to work out a deal. ByteDance CEO Shou Chew was even spotted at Trump’s inauguration on January 20.
But the clock is still ticking on TikTok’s future. Trump said last week that he’d be open to Elon—or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison—stepping in to buy the app. The US president also recently signed another executive order to create a US sovereign wealth fund that could help finance a TikTok acquisition.
TikTok’s fate might not be in ByteDance’s hands alone. The Chinese government would need to approve any sale. Even with intense legal pressure in the US, including a possible Supreme Court ruling, Beijing has the final say. For now, ByteDance has no plans to sell, but that could change under the right circumstances.
Elon tackles AI and German politics
At the Axel Springer event, Elon also took a shot at DeepSeek, an AI chatbot developed by a Chinese software company. DeepSeek has been shaking up Silicon Valley with its low-cost AI models, which compete with offerings from Meta and Microsoft. “Is it some AI revolution? No, it is not,” Elon said. He dismissed DeepSeek’s hype, asserting that his own company, xAI, would soon release superior models.
Elon then shifted gears to talk about regulations in Germany. He urged the country to follow his example with his Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E). “The cleansing process for getting rid of nonsensical regulations is war,” Elon declared. “We prefer not to have war. In the absence of war, you have to have something like what we’ve formed in the US, the Department of Government Efficiency.”
He also backed Trump’s use of tariffs to pressure other countries into cooperation. Elon said tariffs had proven to be an effective tool in handling sensitive international negotiations. The eccentric billionaire doubled down on his support for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
Elon praised the party’s decision to be pro-immigration and pro-free speech. He also defended himself against backlash for attending an AfD rally, where critics accused him of downplaying Germany’s Nazi history.
Elon clarified, “What I’m not saying is that Nazism should be ignored. I never said that. But I am saying the tremendous cultural history of Germany is incredible.” He urged Germans to move past their historical guilt and take pride in their heritage. “One has to understand the full context of German history. The great things and the terrible things,” he added.
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