Trump said during a weekend interview, “We have a deal with TikTok. I think I will need probably China's approval, and I think President Xi will probably do that.” He characterized the potential buyers as “a group of very wealthy people,” but he did not name names, pledging more information in two weeks.
ByteDance, the Chinese internet company that owns TikTok, is racing against time to avoid being locked out of the United States under new regulations set by the Trump administration. TikTok is popular among an estimated 170 million Americans and has become increasingly central to news, entertainment, and small business activities online.
Delays and Previous Deal Attempts
The TikTok divestiture law’s signing was last year, but like with the enforcement hiatuses around the Huawei tech company, Trump has repeatedly put off enforcement, here to give negotiators more time to negotiate a sale.
An April near-final agreement collapsed when Trump announced new tariffs on China, leading to another 75-day extension. Earlier this month, he pushed the deadline back again for 90 days, letting TikTok continue to operate in the United States for the time being.
The White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, confirmed that the administration is continuing to negotiate with China and added that the president’s concern is making sure that TikTok is available to Americans in a way that protects their data and privacy. ByteDance and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment on the latest developments.
Top Contenders to Acquire TikTok
Several bidders have been in talks to purchase TikTok’s U.S. operations. A consortium of private equity firms, tech investors, and companies were reportedly on the brink of a deal in April that would have put them in charge of TikTok in the U.S., with ByteDance only holding no more than a 20% minority stake — the maximum allowed by law. Under the law, TikTok U.S. is supposed to run independently, without sharing data with or algorithm cooperation from ByteDance.
Oracle, TikTok’s existing U.S. technology partner, is among the names in the mix, and it may form a consortium with companies like General Atlantic and Susquehanna International Group. Oracle and Susquehanna did not respond to questions this week, and General Atlantic declined to comment.
‘The People’s Bid’ and Other Players
Also pursuing TikTok are billionaire Frank McCourt, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and investor Kevin O’Leary, who are part of a group they refer to as “The People’s Bid for TikTok.
Their plan would give users greater power over their data and steer TikTok toward a completely American technology infrastructure. The only solution that fully complies with legal requirements, according to a group spokesperson, is to include both the legal and the common names.
YouTube star MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), and Founder Jesse Tinsley also announced their desire to buy TikTok. Their consortium did not respond to a request for an update on the proposal.
Earlier this year the AI company Perplexity also declared an intent to purchase TikTok and rebuild the app’s algorithm from scratch. It hasn’t issued any new statements lately.
As the September 17 deadline looms and Trump pledges an announcement soon, the battle to determine TikTok’s U.S. fate is heating up. Whether China would approve the deal is one of the key issues in completing the process.
