Musk has a history of being unconventional and making irreverent tweets, and it was not immediately clear whether he planned to pursue a deal to secure Manchester United. United are currently at the foot of the Premier League table after two straight losses to start the season, including an embarrassing 4-0 loss to Brentford last weekend.
The club is controlled by the American Glazer family. Neither the family nor Musk immediately responded to a request for comment.
British newspaper The Daily Mirror reported last year that the Glazers were prepared to sell the club, but only if they were offered in excess of four billion pounds.($A6.9b)
Musk is currently trying to exit a $US44 billion ($A63b) agreement to buy the social media company, which has taken him to court.
Manchester United is one of the world’s best supported football clubs. They have been champions of England a record 20 times and have won the European Cup, the continent’s most prestigious club competition, three times.
Dissatisfaction among fans at the Glazers’ perceived lack of ambition to bring in top players intensified after the club finished sixth in the Premier League last season, while cross-town rivals Manchester City won a second successive title.
The football club had a market capitalisation of $US2.1 billion ($A3b) as of Tuesday’s stock market close.
Manchester United fans have in recent years protested against the Glazers, who bought the club for 790 million pounds ($A1.4b) in 2005, due to the team’s struggles on the pitch.
The anti-Glazer movement gained momentum last year after United were involved in a failed attempt to form a breakaway European Super League.
Some fans have urged Musk to buy Manchester United instead of buying Twitter.
Musk has a history of unconventional actions and comments, making it difficult sometimes to tell when he is joking.
His ambitions range from colonising Mars to creating a new sustainable energy economy, and in the process he has built the most valuable car company in the world, electric vehicle maker Tesla, rocket company SpaceX, and a slew of smaller firms. One is a tunnel maker called the Boring Company.
Forbes estimates his fortune at $US270 billion ($A384b).
Predictably the reaction was varied.
© AAP
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