Elon Musk has quashed rumours that he might buy TikTok, the Chinese-owned video-sharing app that US is trying to ban on national security grounds.
There had been speculation that the world’s richest man could combine the American operations of TikTok with X, which was previously called Twitter and was bought by Musk for $44 billion in 2022. Yet in his first public comments on the rumours, Musk denied any interest in a deal.
“I have not put in a bid for TikTok,” he told a conference organised by a unit of Axel Springer, the German media business. “I usually build companies from scratch,” Musk told the event late last month in comments that were only released at the weekend. “I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok.”
It comes amid uncertainty about the app’s future. The platform, which is used by about 170 million Americans monthly, was due to be banned in the US in January. However, on his first day in office President Trump signed an executive order delaying the ban for 75 days.
The deferral has granted TikTok more time to find a non-Chinese buyer for the app, a requirement in the law signed by President Biden.
Musk told the conference that his purchase of X — which has made the billionaire behind Tesla electric cars and the SpaceX rockets business one of the world’s dominant online figures — was “highly unusual”.
“I do not acquire companies in general, it’s quite rare,” Musk, who joined the event remotely, said. Buying Twitter was “important to preserve freedom of speech in America” and he was unsure “if the same logic applies to TikTok”.
“I don’t acquire things just for economic reasons. It’s not clear to me what the purpose of acquiring TikTok would be apart from economics,” the tycoon said.
TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, was told to sell the American assets of the video-sharing platform by January or face a ban. While Bytedance has said it doesn’t have any plans to sell TikTok, a number of American investors have expressed an interest in acquiring the app.
The attempted ban of TikTok arose due to American lawmakers’ concerns that the video-sharing platform was a potential security risk and over fears that data on US users could be shared with China. TikTok has denied that it has or ever would share American user data.
Trump’s executive order to delay the ban came just hours after his inauguration, which was attended by Shou Zi Chew, the chief executive of ByteDance. Trump was previously in favour of banning TikTok during his first term as president but has recently spoken in support of the app. “We won the young vote. I think I won it through TikTok, so I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” he said.
Since the law took effect in January both Apple and Google have not brought TikTok back to their app stores. Trump is expected to make a decision on the future of TikTok in the US this month and said he was in talks with a number of individuals about the purchase of the app.
Kevin O’Leary, the Canadian businessman, and Frank McCourt, the former owner of the American baseball team the Los Angeles Dodgers, have expressed interest in buying the app. While Jimmy Donaldson, a TikTok and YouTube influencer known as MrBeast, posted online last month that he was interested in acquiring the video-sharing platform.
TikTok was contacted for comment.
