Elon Musk has dismissed speculation that he is interested in acquiring TikTok, the popular social media platform facing scrutiny in the United States over national security concerns tied to its Chinese owner, ByteDance.
Speaking at a conference in Germany last month, Musk made his first public comments on the matter, stating emphatically that he had not placed a bid for TikTok and had no plans to pursue an acquisition.
“I have not put in a bid for TikTok. I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok,” Musk said.
Musk’s remarks, published by Die Welt on Saturday, mark his first public comments on the matter. He also noted that he does not use the app personally and prefers to build companies from the ground up rather than acquire existing ones.
What we know
His statement comes as TikTok’s future in the U.S. remains uncertain. ByteDance has publicly refused to sell the app, though some prospective buyers hope that a Supreme Court ruling in favor of a national security law—one that could force the company to sell or shut down its U.S. operations—might change its stance.
- Any sale, however, would also require approval from the Chinese government, which has signaled resistance to a forced divestiture.
- Musk also used the interview to address growing competition in artificial intelligence, particularly from DeepSeek, a Chinese AI chatbot launched in January. DeepSeek has drawn attention for offering high-performance AI models at significantly lower costs, unsettling tech investors and prompting questions about the spending strategies of giants like Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI.
“Is it some AI revolution? No, it is not. “xAI and others will soon be releasing models that are better than DeepSeek,” he added.
What to know
The billionaire also weighed in on regulatory policies, advocating for what he described as a “Department of Government Efficiency” to streamline bureaucratic processes. He suggested that Germany should follow the model he has promoted in the U.S.
“The cleansing process for getting rid of nonsensical regulations is war. We prefer not to have war. In the absence of war, you have to have something like what we’ve formed in the U.S,” Musk said.
He also defended former President Donald Trump’s use of tariffs as a tool to push for international cooperation on key policy matters.
