Owner / Chairman & CTO of X Corp. (also CEO of parent SpaceX/xAI), X Corp. (formerly Twitter, Inc.)
Elon Musk: "Why I Was Forced to Buy Twitter..."
ElonMusk #TwitterAcquisition #SpaceX #RocketTechnology #ITARLaw #MediaExposure #FreeSpeech.
About Elon Musk
Elon Musk said in a July 2026 interview with The Economist that he expects artificial intelligence to exceed the sum of human intelligence in roughly five years and that humans will likely no longer be in control in ten years. He described the most likely outcome as an "age of amazing abundance" but acknowledged potential derailments such as a global thermonuclear war. Musk also discussed his recommendation that leading AI companies meet every few weeks to discuss safety and security issues, and he expressed skepticism about the feasibility of regulating AI, stating that "all roads lead to acceleration of AI." In June and July 2026, Musk spoke at events surrounding SpaceX's initial public offering, which he described as the largest IPO ever. He said he initially gave SpaceX less than a 10% chance of succeeding and that the company's goal is to "take the fiction out of science fiction" by making life multi-planetary. Musk outlined plans to increase mass to orbit from roughly 2,500 tons per year to millions of tons per year within about three years using Starship, and discussed building AI data centers in space powered by solar arrays. He also referenced the Kardashev scale as a metric for civilization's progress and said that reaching higher levels would require a mass driver on the Moon for local production of photovoltaics. Separately, Musk said he acquired Twitter because he believed the platform was at risk of being shut down under a Kamala Harris administration, and he described the Department of Justice as having attacked SpaceX for not hiring asylum seekers, which he said is legal under International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
Transcript (49 segments)
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Elon Musk0:00
Exactly. No, it's I mean there were the reason I bought it is because I'm a pretty attuned since I was like the most interacted with user on Twitter before the acquisition. So before the acquisition I had more interactions than then like there were some accounts like Obama and whatever had a higher follower accounts but I had the most number of interactions of any account in the system. So I was very attuned to like if they saw change if they change the system I can tell immediately. Like and I'm like something weird is going on here. You know like there's like I just got increasingly uneasy. And obviously when they deplatformed the sitting president, you know, not deplatforming Trump, that was just insane.
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Interviewer0:45
And and and the things he was posting like he was posting things that that like he was posting good things. He was saying like hey do we don't do not riot don't don't do do any destruction of property you know please stay calm. Like that's the kind of stuff. Yeah. posting. Yeah. And you're like
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Elon Musk1:02
Uh What's wrong with that? That's and then then some people said like oh that's like some sort of dog whistle he means the opposite. I'm like okay so we'll give you Trump's account. Now you you post what you think you should post because you can post nothing you can ask people to calm down. Like what? It was insane like it didn't make any sense.
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Interviewer1:20
Well it's completely illogical when you say it's dog whistling to tell his followers to not be violent. Yes. And crazy. That's crazy. Crazy. Don't you think they would listen to him? Yeah. Isn't that the whole point they listen to him and created violence in the first place? That's what you think. Yes exactly. You're accusing him of. Right. And then there's the fact that we know that there was agents in the crowd that were agent provocateurs that were encouraging people to do illegal [ __ ] We know that for a fact. This is not that it was always the big Alex Jones type tin foil hat conspiracy theory cuz Alex proposed that back at the World Trade Organization protests which I believe we're in Seattle in the '90s, and they sent in agent provocateurs start smashing things, lighting things on fire. Now all of a sudden a peaceful protest is no longer peaceful. They move in the cops, they shut everything down. They had it set up where it was a no protest zone where you couldn't even have a pin that had the WTO with a red line through it. They wouldn't let you go in through to go to work. So you couldn't protest. You couldn't exercise your First Amendment rights. You couldn't even like have a peaceful protest, a [ __ ] sticker on your car. You couldn't have that. It's crazy. It is crazy.
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Elon Musk2:30
So no, I think we're we we're very much at a fork in the road in destiny. Um and um You know, so so I I mean the reason I yeah, did the Twitter acquisition was like it's like man, if if I don't do this, I think we're screwed is the issue.
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Interviewer2:45
Well, if you didn't do it, no one else was going to do it because it wasn't a financial winner. It was kind of a crazy move.
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Elon Musk2:50
It's a crazy move. I mean, the thing was way overpriced. Um And um you know, like like long term I think we can we can ultimately make it a win for investors, but boy, this is this is a this is a hard way to make a living.
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Interviewer3:05
Well, there's also a concerted effort to suppress it. There's a concerted effort to with the advertisers.
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Elon Musk3:09
Well, we had we we had a and still have a um a massive advertiser boycott. That was organized by a bunch of left-wing NGOs. Like you know, and and you always want And I should have wrote I should have wrote my um I I have a hat make Orwell fiction again.
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Interviewer3:25
I've seen that hat. [laughter]
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Elon Musk3:27
Yeah. I I should have wrote I was going to wear my I should have wore my make Orwell fiction hat again. Um but but uh Yeah, I mean, it's just totally totally nuts. Um So
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Interviewer3:38
If you didn't do it, no one would have. And here's the hilarious narrative that I keep hearing from idiots. Uh Elon's a bad businessman. Twitter is worth, you know, 400% less than when he bought it. No, it wasn't worth that in the first place.
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Elon Musk3:51
It wasn't worth that in the first place. It wasn't worth 44 billion dollars, you [ __ ] morons. Like, you're wrong. And also, you're not taking into account the advertiser boycott.
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Interviewer3:59
Exactly.
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Elon Musk3:59
That's total [ __ ] Yeah, exactly. So, there are these organizations like you can tell there's like they're like like when they have an Orwellian name. So, like the like the center center for countering digital hate is a total scam organization, you know, cuz they're like the Ministry of Truth type of thing in in Orwell. Um you know, um They're they're they're like they're they're a censorship organization.
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Interviewer4:22
Yeah.
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Elon Musk4:23
Um and they organize and they pushed the advertisers to boycott. Uh so, we still have like some of the boycott is is is starting to lift. Um and I think if Trump wins, we'll we'll see, you know, probably a lot most most of the boycott lift. But if if Kamala wins, we'll see that boycott get stronger. Uh and and they'll they'll freaking shut down. There's no way that that a the sort of Kamala Kamala puppet regime would allow X to exist.
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Interviewer4:49
You really think that they'll be able to shut it down, though? Is there a pathway to that?
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Elon Musk4:53
Uh yes.
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Interviewer4:54
What would they do?
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Elon Musk4:55
Um Well, I mean, they can just they can sick the DOJ on you know, and say like you know, they have had this whole thing about like hate speech, misinformation, whatever, except that they're the ones pushing the misinformation. Uh but that doesn't stop them from filing massive, you know, lawsuits and using the DOJ. I mean, like the DOJ is you know, been attacking SpaceX, for example, for not hiring asylum seekers, even though it is legal for SpaceX to hire anyone who is not a permanent resident of the US. So, we're we're damned if we do and damned if we don't. It's an example just an example of what DOJ can do.
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Interviewer5:30
So, it's illegal to hire someone who's not an American citizen?
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Elon Musk5:34
Um What SpaceX is considered an an advanced weapons technology. So, it's it's covered by International Traffic in Arms Regulations because we make rocket technology that can be used against the United States. So, like if North North Korea or Iran got SpaceX rocket technology, they could use that to launch nukes at America. Right. That would be bad. Yeah. [laughter] That'd be really bad. That'd be really bad. So, so we're we're uh since we are in like the most extreme category of weapons technology at SpaceX, um under uh US ITAR law, it is uh illegal for us to hire anyone who's not a permanent resident because the presumption um is that if they're not a permanent resident, they are going to return to their uh home country and take the rocket technology with them. So, that's and so so it's illegal for us to hire um anyone who's not a either has not a permanent They can They can be have a green card or be a citizen. They just have to be a permanent resident of the United States. Um then there's another law that says if you if you discriminate against asylum seekers, that's also a you're also breaking the law. So, they they just So, they the DOJ we should not and the DOJ DOJ can only do a small number of big lawsuits every year. Launched a joint lawsuit against SpaceX uh saying that SpaceX uh discriminated against asylum seekers. And we're like, but we're like, but it's illegal for us to hire anyone who's not a permanent resident. So, we're in this like this is what I mean. It's like a well a well situation is getting insane. Like you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't. So, you're damned.
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Interviewer7:05
Can you imagine history looking back [ __ ] up, man. at when you watch the robot arms catch the rocket and you realize like this is like one of the greatest accomplishments in the history of aerospace. Like it is one of the most wildest accomplishments. When you watch that thing come and you see all these people cheering and it catches it perfectly, like holy [ __ ] Uh imagine how history's going to look back at the DOJ going after that company.
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Elon Musk7:32
Yeah. It was a big lawsuit with an army of lawyers. Like this was not like some minor thing.
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Interviewer7:38
It doesn't even make any sense logically. Like how could it even get brought to court if it's illegal?
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Elon Musk7:43
That's exactly. So, that's what I mean, like like like Basically, if the government wants to go after you, they'll just find a reason. You know, it's like that famous quote um from Beria. You know, like so like Stalin's like chief torturer and the head of Stalin's secret police and he's like chief chief torturer, truly evil human being. Like this guy Beria, uh he his his one of his famous quotes was, "Show me the man and I'll show you the crime." Right. They just They just They They like They decide that you're the target and then they figure out the crime afterwards. That's the issue. They decided SpaceX was the target. They just figured out the crime afterwards.
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Interviewer8:19
Which is so crazy because that's exactly what they're saying Trump is going to do if he gets into office.
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Elon Musk8:24
They're doing all the things that they accuse Trump of doing.
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Interviewer8:27
Yeah.
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Elon Musk8:28
Openly.
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Interviewer8:29
Openly. Yeah.
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Elon Musk8:30
I mean, the the the sheer number of hoaxes that the Democratic Party is pushing over and over again. They And it's like, look, I understand like politicians are going to, you know, exaggerate. They're going to misspeak and they'll tell occasional, you know, untruths, whatever. That's That's how it is in politics. But when you have deliberate, concerted, repeated pushing of hoaxes, you're like, "Wait a second. Like, come on, man. This is too This is too far."
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Interviewer8:59
And you're supposed to be the good guys.
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Elon Musk9:00
You're supposed And you claim to be the good guys. I'm like, "Exactly."
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Interviewer9:03
You're supposed to be the progressives.
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Elon Musk9:05
Yes, the Dems are like, "Oh, we're the good guys. We're the honest people." No, no, hang on. You can't claim to be the good guys You can't claim to be the honest people if you're deliberately post pushing hoaxes that have been debunked thoroughly.
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Interviewer9:16
Yeah.
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Elon Musk9:17
Well, we're like even Snopes, which is a liberal thing, says it's bogus.
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Interviewer9:21
Yeah.
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Elon Musk9:21
Like the fine people hoax.
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Interviewer9:23
Obama just said that on stage.
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Elon Musk9:25
Trump a [ __ ] He doesn't give a [ __ ] They're just They're just going for it. [ __ ] lie. Flat-out lie. Flat-out [ __ ] lie.
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Interviewer9:33
the other one where Kamala's campaign used what Trump was saying about protecting women and uh from illegal immigrants?
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Elon Musk9:39
it.
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Interviewer9:40
Remember that? That he what he was saying is that whether the whether THE WOMEN LIKE IT OR NOT, I'M GOING TO DO IT.
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Elon Musk9:45
YEAH.
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Interviewer9:45
When he was saying that, they were trying to say that he was taking away women's right to choose, whether women like it or not. Like that's not what he was saying.
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Elon Musk9:53
Absolutely. literally talking about protecting them from dangerous people that are sneaking in through the border. Yes, exactly. They'll take like like not even a full sentence, like a half a sentence from and then and then they'll push it on on every ad, every you know, every speaking event, every media on the news. This is what's crazy. They'll talk about it on these new shows, quote new shows. Yeah, exactly. I mean um I mean a recent one that that came up um which had a lot of people because I a lot of people reached out to me. It was like