Elon Musk doesn’t want to buy TikTok.
The billionaire owner of X (formerly Twitter) made the announcement at a summit for the German media company Axel Springer SE late last month— but the WELT Group (who’s also a part of the media company) just released the video of Musk’s reveal today (Feb. 8).
"I have not put in a bid for TikTok,” he said. “I don't have any plans for what I would do if I had TikTok.”
Musk then revealed that he’s not familiar with the app’s format, nor does he actually use it himself. "I'm not chomping at the bit to acquire TikTok, I do not acquire companies in general, it's quite rare,” he explained. "I usually build companies from scratch.”
In January, TikTok was banned briefly in the United States before being brought back by President Trump, who extended the owner company Bytedance’s deadline to find a buyer in the United States.
Since Musk isn’t looking to acquire it, MrBeast could be the person that steps up to the plate. After tweeting about his interest in purchasing TikTok, MrBeast revealed that he spoke with multiple billionaires about getting involved in a group purchase.
It started with MrBeast posting, “Okay, fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned,” on X. The next day, he returned with, “Unironically I’ve had so many billionaires reach out to me since I tweeted this, let’s see if we can pull this off.”
Later, MrBeast shared on TikTok that he was actively talking to potential investors. "Just got out of a meeting with a bunch of billionaires. TikTok, we mean business," he said. "This is my lawyer right here, we have an offer ready for you. We wanna buy the platform, America deserves TikTok! Give me a seat at the table, let me save this platform, TikTok!"
TikTok has an estimated value of $300 billion — which is far more than MrBeast’s estimated net worth of $500 million.
Another option for a purchaser for TikTok could be the United States itself. Last week, President Trump took the first steps towards setting up a sovereign wealth fund for the United States and suggested that it could buy the platform.
"We're going to be doing something, perhaps with TikTok, and perhaps not," Trump said. "If we make the right deal, we'll do it. Otherwise, we won't... we might put that in the sovereign wealth fund."
