Right before he bought Twitter, Elon Musk said he didn't want to buy the company and called it 'a recipe for misery.' Here's what changed.

• Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk is buying Twitter for $44 billion.
• Just one week before he made the offer to Twitter's board, Musk said he had no interest in a takeover.

As the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, billionaire Elon Musk already has a lot on his plate.

And now, as of this week, he's also the new owner of Twitter — pending regulatory approval, of course.

But just one week before he made the $44 billion offer to Twitter's board of directors, when asked by TED head Chris Anderson if he planned a takeover, Musk said, "No way" and called running Twitter, "a recipe for misery."

As its new owner, Musk said, "Everyone will blame me for everything."

During a lengthy interview at TED 2022, Musk explained why he changed his mind in such a short period of time and decided to acquire Twitter.

"I just think it's important to the function of democracy," Musk said. "It's important to the function of the United States as a free country, and many other countries. And actually to help freedom in the world, more broadly than the US. The civilizational risk is decreased the more we can increase the trust of Twitter as a public platform."

During the first few months of 2022, Musk quietly spent over $2.6 billion buying up Twitter stock — about 9% of the company's stock.

After revealing his stake in Twitter earlier this month, Musk was subsequently appointed to the board of directors, a post which he initially accepted — before walking back that acceptance days later. A few days after that, Musk appealed to Twitter's current board with a $43 billion offer to buy the company.

That same day, at TED 2022, Musk said that he doesn't view the acquisition as a way to make money. "I don't care about the economics at all."

Instead, his stated goal with Twitter is to foster a "public platform that is maximally trusted and broadly inclusive" — goals he intends to accomplish by tossing the platform's moderation guidelines, open-sourcing its moderation and suggestion algorithms, and removing spambots.

"If I acquire Twitter and something goes wrong, it's my fault — 100%. I think there will be quite a few errors," he told TED's Anderson. "I hope it's not too miserable."

Watch the full interview right here:

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