Elon Musk says he has no interest in buying TikTok.
The statement comes after US President Donald Trump said he was open to the possibility of Musk buying the app from ByteDance.
February 8 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk has stated that he has no interest in buying TikTok, the popular short-video app that the United States is trying to ban due to national security concerns regarding its Chinese owner, ByteDance.
Musk's comments, made in late January, were released online on Saturday by The WELT group, part of the German media company Axel Springer SE, which organized a summit in which the Tesla CEO (TSLA.O) participated via video conference.
"I haven't made any offer for TikTok," Musk said, a week after US President Donald Trump stated he was open to the possibility of Musk buying the app from ByteDance, should he be interested.
"I have no plans for what I would do if I had TikTok," Musk said, adding that he doesn't personally use the short-video app and isn't familiar with its format.
"I'm not eager to acquire TikTok, I don't usually acquire companies in general, it's quite rare," Musk said, noting that his billion-dollar acquisition of the social media platform Twitter, now called X, was an exception.
"I generally build companies from scratch," Musk stated.
The Republican president signed an executive order seeking to postpone the implementation of a ban on the popular short-video app, which was scheduled to be shut down on January 19.
ByteDance has been given a January deadline to sell TikTok's US assets or face a ban in the country, following concerns from lawmakers that the app poses national security risks as China could force the company to share the data of American users. TikTok has denied that it has or ever would have shared data from US users.
Apple and Google have not reinstated TikTok in their app stores since a US law went into effect. TikTok stated on Friday that it was allowing Android users in the US to download and connect to the app via bundles on its website, as an attempt to circumvent restrictions on the popular platform in the country.
Trump said he was in talks with several people about buying TikTok and would likely make a decision about the app's future this month. TikTok has about 170 million American users.
This week, the president signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund later this year, saying it could potentially buy TikTok.
ByteDance has previously denied any plans to sell TikTok.
Trump's attempt to save TikTok represents a shift in stance from his first term, when he unsuccessfully tried to ban the app due to concerns that the company was sharing Americans' personal information with the Chinese government.
More recently, Trump said that TikTok has "a special place in my heart," crediting the app with helping him win over young voters in the 2024 presidential election.
ByteDance and TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of business hours.
