Tech billionaire and head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, has dismissed speculations that he is planning to buy TikTok, clarifying that he has not placed a bid for the platform.
Speaking at the WELT Economic Summit in Berlin on January 28, Musk stated that he is not interested in acquiring TikTok, despite growing investor interest in purchasing the app.
I have not actually put in a bid for TikTok, and I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok.
Musk also revealed that he does not personally use the platform and is "not chomping at the bit" to acquire it. He added,
I usually build companies from scratch.
The US government had earlier ordered ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, to divest from the platform or face a ban from app stores due to national security concerns. The Supreme Court upheld the law in January, and President Donald Trump later signed an executive order, giving ByteDance 75 days to sell TikTok before the ban takes effect.
Several investors, including “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary and former Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, have expressed interest in purchasing the platform.
Musk compared the potential TikTok acquisition to his purchase of Twitter (now X), describing the latter as a "rare and highly unusual" move motivated by a desire to preserve free speech.
I don’t acquire things just for economic reasons. So it’s not clear to me what the purpose of acquiring TikTok would be apart from economics.
With ByteDance insisting it will not sell TikTok, the platform could go dark in the US by April if no intervention is made.