Billionaire Elon Musk says he has no plans to buy TikTok US 

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.

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.

“Is it some AI revolution? No, it is not. “xAI and others will soon be releasing models that are better than DeepSeek,” he added.

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.