Although it should really go without saying that Musk is not buying Ford, the Detroit automaker has confirmed that the rumor is entirely made up. “No, that’s not true,” a spokesperson told The Houston Chronicle on Friday.
Rumors about Tesla making big acquisitions are always floating around the internet, although some of the latest are mainly generated by artificial intelligence rather than usual gossip. There’s a mini-cottage industry of fake Tesla news and gossip all over YouTube and likely other corners of the internet.
Both Elon Musk Rewind and Voyager, which appear to be either the source of or a transmitter of the idea that Musk is buying Ford, have spread a number of false claims. That includes fake products, like a “Tesla Home” and $500 laptops, or claims that Musk has found “proof” that giants are alive. For what it’s worth, Elon Musk Rewind does in its video’s description that it “contains information not to be considered the truth.”
Other channels claim that Tesla is buying Jeep-maker Stellantis $STLA to “all competition,” releasing hydrogen-powered cars, and other obvious falsehoods.
It’s plain to see why such channels would make up content about Musk — he’s kind of a big deal. With President-elect Donald Trump heading to the White House, Musk is poised to have a sizable amount of influence over him, as well as an undefined role in slashing government spending. That’s already paying dividends, sending Tesla stock surging and its market cap past $1 trillion last week.
Besides Tesla, which makes electric vehicles and works on self-driving cars, Musk already owns or leads several companies. That includes aerospace firm SpaceX, the social media platform X $TWTR (META), artificial intelligence startup xAI, brain chip startup Neuralink, and tunneling firm The Boring Company.
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