Billionaire businessman Elon Musk apologised for endorsing a social media post widely seen as anti-Semitic.
However, he accused advertisers who are turning away from his social media platform X of "blackmail" and said anyone who does so can "go f*** yourself."
The remark before corporate executives at the New York Times' Dealbook conference drew a shocked silence.
Earlier, Mr Musk had apologised for what he called "literally the worst and dumbest post that I've ever done".
In a comment on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Musk on 15 November called a post "the actual truth" that said Jewish communities advocated a "dialectical hatred against whites", which was criticised as echoing long-time conspiracy theory among white supremacists.
The statement prompted a flood of departures from X of major advertisers, including Apple, Disney, Comcast and IBM who criticised Mr Musk for anti-Semitism.
"I'm sorry for that tweet or post," Mr Musk said. "It was foolish of me."
He told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin that his post had been misinterpreted and that he had sought to clarify the remark in subsequent posts to the thread.
But Mr Musk also said he would not be beholden to pressure from advertisers.
"If somebody's gonna try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money?" Mr Musk said. "Go f*** yourself."
But the billionaire acknowledged that there were business implications to the advertiser actions.
"If the company fails ... it will fail because of an advertiser boycott" Mr Musk said. "And that will be what will bankrupt the company."
Mr Musk, who met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a visit to Israel earlier this week, insisted in the interview that he holds no discrimination against Jews, calling himself "philo-Semitic," or an admirer of Judaism.
During the interview, Mr Musk wore a necklace given to him by a parent of an Israeli hostage taken in the Hamas attack on 7 October. The necklace reads, "Bring Them Home".
Mr Musk Mr told Sorkin that the Israel trip had been planned earlier and was not an "apology tour" related to the controversial tweet.
