Tech billionaire and head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), Elon Musk, has dismissed speculations that he’s planning to purchase TikTok, clarifying that he has not positioned a bid for the platform.
Talking on the WELT Financial Summit in Berlin on January 28, Musk said that he’s not thinking about buying TikTok, regardless of rising investor curiosity in buying the app.
I’ve not truly put in a bid for TikTok, and I don’t have any plans for what I might do if I had TikTok.
Musk additionally revealed that he doesn’t personally use the platform and is “not chomping on the bit” to accumulate it. He added,
I often construct firms from scratch.
The US authorities had earlier ordered ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese language proprietor, to divest from the platform or face a ban from app shops attributable to nationwide safety considerations. 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.
A number of traders, together with “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary and former Dodgers proprietor Frank McCourt, have expressed curiosity in buying the platform.
Musk in contrast the potential TikTok acquisition to his buy of Twitter (now X), describing the latter as a “uncommon and extremely uncommon” transfer motivated by a want to protect free speech.
I don’t acquire things just for economic reasons. So it’s not clear to me what the aim of buying TikTok can be aside from economics.
With ByteDance insisting it won’t promote TikTok, the platform may go darkish within the US by April if no intervention is made.
