Elon Musk has finally put to rest speculations about him buying the mega-popular social media platform. While President Donald Trump had said he was open to Musk buying the ByteDance-owned app, Musk said he was not interested in the same.
Musk’s comments made late January at a conference, were released on Saturday Feb. 8.
READ: Donald Trump declares ‘TikTok is back’ ahead of inauguration (January 20, 2025)
“I have not put in a bid for TikTok,” Musk said. “I don’t have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok. I’m not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok, I do not acquire companies in general, it’s quite rare. I usually build companies from scratch.”
He also added that his acquisition of Twitter, now X, was unusual.
The speculations over the acquisition of Tiktok came following the passing of a law banning the app, citing security concerns. TikTok had gone dark in the U.S. on Jan 19, however it became accessible again in less than a day—though it remained unavailable in app stores.
Since then, Trump has announced he would reverse the ban, however there has still been talk about ByteDance having to divest from its U.S. operations. Trump has said that he was in talks with multiple people over TikTok’s purchase and would likely have a decision on the app’s future this month. TikTok has about 170 million American users.
On Feb. 3, the president signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund within the year, saying it could potentially buy TikTok.
READ: Perplexity AI offers to merge with TikTok (January 20, 2025)
ByteDance, however, has denied having plans to sell TikTok. Trump’s present stance on TikTok is in contrast with his stance during his first term, when he sought to ban the app over concerns the company was sharing Americans’ personal information with the Chinese government.
Aside from Musk, Perplexity AI has been in the talks about a merger with TikTok. There have also been reports of the YouTuber Mr.Beast possibly making a bid for it.