CORRECTION (11/11/24): A previous version of this story incorrectly referred to Musk as CEO of Starlink and X. Musk owns X, but is not the company's CEO. Additionally, Starlink is a subsidiary of SpaceX, which Musk is the CEO of. The story has been updated to reflect his corrected titles.
In early November 2024, a rumor that Elon Musk, the owner of X and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, purchased Ford Motor Company began spreading online, prompting many to go to Google to look up if it was true.
Stu emailed us to ask if the rumor was true.
THE QUESTION
Did Elon Musk purchase Ford?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
No, Elon Musk did not purchase Ford.
WHAT WE FOUND
Elon Musk did not buy Ford Motor Company, and there is no indication that he has any plans to do so. The rumor appears to be based on a May 2023 announcement of a partnership between Tesla and Ford.
Musk has not announced any plans to purchase Ford on his X account. Ford has not published a press release stating that Musk has purchased the car company. Tesla has not announced that Musk has purchased Ford or that it would merge with the rival company.
No reputable news sources have reported any rumors regarding Musk and a potential Ford buyout.
Through a search on Google, VERIFY traced this rumor back to a June 24, 2023 YouTube video titled “Elon Musk OFFICIALLY Bought Ford | HUGE NEWS!” The video’s description includes a disclaimer stating that it’s based on rumors and fiction.
The video claims Tesla and Ford will “gradually start collaborating until they fully merge into one corporation.” It says that the companies have “already made their first move together” by sharing their respective superchargers with each other.
This is referring to an announcement made by Ford on May 25, 2023, in which the company said that it reached an agreement with Tesla to provide Ford electric vehicle owners with access to more than 12,000 North American Tesla superchargers starting Spring 2024. Tesla’s superchargers make up the car company’s electric vehicle charging network.
The press release made no mention of further collaboration between the two companies.
Similar YouTube videos claiming Musk bought Ford have occasionally been posted on a number of channels since then. The frequency of these videos appears to have started picking up in September 2024.
The oldest video VERIFY could find among this recent wave of videos was posted Sept. 6, 2024 and was viewed over 160,000 times. Another posted on Sept. 11, 2024 was viewed 85,000 times.
One channel posted a video making the claim on Sept. 26, 2024, which was viewed 32,000 times. That same channel then posted another video making the same claim on Oct. 30, which has been viewed more than 19,000 times since.
The most popular video VERIFY could find making the claim is one that was posted Sept. 16, 2024 and has since been viewed more than 600,000 times. The description of that video says it “contains information not to be considered the truth.”
VERIFY reached out to Ford and Tesla for comment but did not get a response by time of publishing.
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