Twitter: Musk opens up about motivations behind acquisition deal

Yahoo Finance Live examines Tesla CEO Elon Musk's recent interview with the Financial Times, opening up about his goals for Twitter and social media and commenting on President Biden and his EV adoption plans.

Video transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: Man of the moment, Elon Musk, giving an interview to the "Financial Times" entitled "Aren't you entertained?" Well, yes, we indeed are. Elon touched on Twitter, Truth Social, living in space someday, President Biden, potential conflict in Taiwan, which he says would result in a 30% hit to the global economy, just FYI.

Let's start with the most timely though. Elon saying, "I'm not doing Twitter for the money. It's not like I'm trying to buy some yacht and I can't afford it. I don't own any boats. But I think it's important that people have a maximally trusted and inclusive means of exchanging ideas and that it should be as trusted and transparent as possible."

Elon also says of Truth Social, it's essentially a right-wing echo chamber. It might as well be called "Trumpet." That was a big surprise for a guy who has, at least apparently, courted Donald Trump to return to Twitter.

But let's start with the big part on Twitter there, Seana. If I'm an investor, if I'm helping him finance this, and he tells me he's not doing it for the money, I'm not so thrilled about my investment, nor the safety of it.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, not a good move right now, especially given what has transpired over the last 24 hours just in terms of getting funding for this deal. You would think that maybe that wasn't the smartest thing to say.

He said he's not doing it for the money. I think it's clear that he's doing it for the attention, or that plays some sort of role in all of this. We know that Musk, Rachelle, does not hide his feelings ever, it seems like, when it comes to Twitter. He likes being able to communicate. He said he likes using the platform in order to have direct correspondence with not only his supporters and people who love Tesla but really a platform for getting his voice heard. I don't think he-- it's up for debate I guess whether or not he adds much positive/good I guess when it comes to what he says on the platform. But he does certainly, it's safe to say, spark a lot of debate.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And, obviously, this isn't the first time that he said he wasn't doing it for the money. But, as you mentioned, if you're a shareholder or you're one of these banks that are involved in the financing, that's definitely not what you want to hear.

But I think it also speaks to the fact that he does always seem to be driven by something bigger. So whether it's this plan-- this everything-- this X app that he's planning on, there does seem to be a plan in mind. Because you have to remember, at one point, Tesla was not profitable, and people were like, where is this company going? And he was, interestingly, in this article, basically crediting himself with the amount-- the speed that now we've seen things like Tesla and electric charging and governments now putting money into it.

So maybe there's some big plan in mind. Obviously, it does not seem to be money, but a very interesting insight into how he thinks. And he certainly does set himself up for a lot of conflict and trouble when he just sort of has that sort of verbal diarrhea on Twitter, just says whatever comes into his mind, because he might end up footing the bill for Twitter, which is exactly how this started, with a tweet.

DAVE BRIGGS: And back to the Twitter and the things he said about it-- making it an open platform, outsourcing the algorithm, and things of that nature-- we still haven't heard a real plan to actually make money, to increase the ad revenue, or to get people to pay for a monthly service, and that I'm sure those investors are eager to hear about. But he also said that the sun will eventually destroy all life on Earth.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah, a little worrisome.

DAVE BRIGGS: So we need to move at some point or at least be a multi-planet species. And he also had some interesting comments about President Biden and his age, Seana.

SEANA SMITH: He did, yeah. What he said about his age really stuck out to me, basically saying that, right now, he's too old. He went on to say maybe one generation away from the average age is OK, but two generations, at the point where you've got great-grandchildren, I don't know how in touch with the people you are. Is it even possible to be?

So we know he hasn't been a good-- he hasn't been the biggest supporter of President Biden. He's talked about, a couple of times, how he felt snubbed when he wasn't included in a couple of things that President Biden has done to promote electric vehicles. He did say he doesn't always agree eye to eye with Trump.

What he also said, Dave, which was interesting to me, was what he had to say in terms of the independent and the super moderate super PAC to support candidates with moderate views, which I thought was also an interesting play there.

DAVE BRIGGS: And a very surprising tone for him--

SEANA SMITH: Yeah.

DAVE BRIGGS: --to strike--

SEANA SMITH: It was.

DAVE BRIGGS: --as well. Recommend reading this article. He's never dull.

SEANA SMITH: Yeah. Rachelle.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: True, I mean, even including international politics. That's a whole other kettle of fish.