Elon Musk Said: I Have No Desire To Buy TikTok Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk has said he has no interest in buying short video platform TikTok. Musk made the revelation in a video conference with German media company Axel Springer SE.
The US government is trying to ban TikTok, citing national security concerns, as the Chinese company owns the platform. President Donald Trump has said he would support Musk if he wanted to buy the app, which is owned by ByteDance. A week later, Musk said, “I did not bid for TikTok.”
Musk said he doesn’t personally use the short video app and isn’t familiar with the app’s structure. “I don’t have a plan for what I would do if I owned TikTok,” he added.
“I’m not interested in acquiring TikTok. I don’t usually buy companies,” he said, referring to the Twitter purchase. “For me, buying companies is very rare.”
ByteDance was given a January deadline to sell TikTok’s US assets or face US sanctions over concerns that China could force it to share US user data. TikTok has insisted it would never give US user data to the Chinese government.
Apple and Google have not made TikTok available on their app stores since the US law went into effect. TikTok said on Friday it was allowing US Android users to download and install the app via a package kit on its website.
This week, the president signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund within a year. Trump has said that the fund could potentially be used to buy TikTok. ByteDance has previously said it has no plans to sell TikTok.
Trump’s move to protect TikTok runs counter to his first-term stance. During his first term, he sought to ban the app, saying the company had given the personal information of American citizens to the Chinese government.
Trump recently expressed sympathy for TikTok, saying it helped him attract young voters in the 2024 presidential election.