(Bloomberg) – Elon Musk said he was not interested in buying Tiktok, the popular social video application that the United States has tried to prohibit national security problems with its Chinese owner bytedance Ltd.
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He made the comments – his first on the subject of the purchase of Tiktok – at a conference in Germany organized by Mathias Doepfner, the billionaire director of the German media conglomerate Axelspringer last month.
“I did not make an offer for Tiktok,” said Musk, joining the conference by video remotely, which was made public by the Die Welt newspaper on Saturday. “I have no plan for what I would do if I had Tiktok.”
Musk said he doesn’t use Tiktok personally.
“I do not scope in the bit to acquire Tiktok,” said Musk, who bought Twitter in 2022 before renamed the X social media service.
The purchase of Twitter was an exception, he said, that he said he bought to “preserve freedom of expression”. He said: “I generally build companies from scratch.”
Bloomberg News said in January that Chinese officials evaluated the possibility that would allow the richest person in the world and an ally close to President Donald Trump to acquire US Tiktok operations if the company does not reject a ban. In a single scenario, Musk’s X would take control of Tiktok US and directed the company together, said familiar people with Bloomberg.
The first day of Trump’s power, he signed a decree that temporarily interrupted a sale or a forced closure of Tiktok, giving the company and its Chinese parent more time to conclude an agreement. The order occurred a few hours after the inauguration of Trump, which attended by the CEO of Bytedance, Shou Chew.
The prescription marked the last round of an effort of several years in Washington to prohibit the application in relation to security problems. Trump – Who pleaded for a ban during his first mandate – changed his mind after the application helped him win younger voters. “We won the young vote. I think I won it via Tiktok, so I have a warm place in my heart for Tiktok, “he said.
Musk, like Trump, could still change his mind.
Trump said that it would be open to Musk, who donated more than $ 250 million to his presidential campaign, or the president of Oracle Corp., Larry Ellison, buying the application as part of a joint venture with the American government. This week, Trump also signed a separate decree which, according to him, would order the authorities to create a sovereign American fund which could be used to facilitate the sale of Tiktok.
Bytedance publicly refused to sell Tiktok, although potential buyers have declared that the Supreme Court’s decision in support of a national security for sale for sale or close the service in the United States could push it to reconsider. It may also not be entirely up to the company – the Chinese government should also sign on any transaction.
Listen: Tiktok faced President Trump on the ban on applications and won Grande
Taking Deepseek
Musk, in the interview with Axelspringer, also said that he was aimed at competing with Deepseek, the artificial intelligence chatbot published in January by the Chinese software company Deepseek.
Deepseek, whose AI models offer performances comparable to other chatbots to a fraction of the cost, sent waves via the technology industry, the rotation of global technological actions and encourages investors to question the Meta, Microsoft and others on IA infrastructure.
“Is it an AI revolution?” No, this is not the case. XAI and others will soon publish models that are better than Deepseek, “said Musk, referring to his own AI business.
Doge for Germany
Musk said Germany should imitate the process it started with Doge.
“The cleaning process to get rid of absurd regulations is war,” he said. “We prefer not to have war. In the absence of war, you must have something like what we have formed in the United States, the government’s Ministry of Effectiveness. »»
He also said Trump used prices as “means of obtaining countries on important issues.”
Musk also reiterated his support for the extreme right alternative for the German party, which, according to him, aligns with questions such as “sensitive” controls on immigration and freedom of expression.
He also discussed the backlash to the comments he made during an AFD rally, urging the Germans to put “past guilt” behind them and to look at the pride of culture and Germanic values.
“What I am not saying is that Nazism must be ignored. I never said that. But I say that the enormous cultural history of Germany is incredible, “he said. “You have to understand the full context of German history. Great things and terrible things.
Furthermore, he said he was worried about reducing birth rates because with “multiculturalism and globalism, we see the dilution of individual cultures”. He warned “a global mixer. Because each place will be the same and there will be no unique cultures in the world. »»
– With the help of Dana Hull.
(Updates with more inter -Outfish details from the 13th paragraph.)
