Elon Musk just lately mentioned he’s “not chomping on the bit to accumulate TikTok.”
Musk made these remarks throughout an interview on the WELT Financial Summit on January 28. A video of the interview was printed immediately.
The interview got here after President Donald Trump delayed a law requiring mum or dad firm ByteDance to promote TikTok or see it banned in america. On the time, there have been studies that the Chinese government was open to a deal wherein Musk (a key Trump ally) would purchase the app. Trump even told reporters that he’d prefer to see Musk or Oracle chairman Larry Ellison purchase TikTok; he’s additionally signed an executive order to create a sovereign wealth fund that would buy a stake within the app.
However Musk claimed that he wasn’t , flatly stating, “I’ve not put in a bid for TikTok.”
“I don’t have any plans for what would I do if I had TikTok,” he mentioned within the interview. “I suppose I might take a look at the algorithm and attempt to resolve: How useful or helpful is that this algorithm? And what can we do to shift the algorithm to be extra productive and in the end be helpful to humanity?”
He added that he doesn’t “use TikTok personally” and is “not that conversant in it.” And he described his acquisition of Twitter (now X) as an anomaly in his profession: “I often construct corporations from scratch.”
Musk’s feedback on TikTok got here almost 20 minutes into the interview, which initially targeted on his plans for his Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) beneath the Trump administration. Musk and his allies have subsequently taken management of federal businesses and gained access to large troves of sensitive data.
“With respect to authorities, actually the problem is overcoming paperwork,” he mentioned. “I believe paperwork is probably the penultimate boss battle. The final word boss battle is defeating entropy … The second hardest battle is defeating paperwork. That’s how troublesome it’s to enhance authorities.”