Thanks to President Donald Trump’s 75-day lifeline, TikTok is back up and running for its 170 million U.S. users and has until April 5 to find an American buyer. Shortly after his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump signed an executive order allowing TikTok to circumvent the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, signed by former President Joe Biden last year, which required TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, to divest in the short video app in the U.S.
Under the law, TikTok has to reduce its Chinese ownership to less than 20 percent for it to continue service in the U.S. But Trump has expressed an interest in negotiating a deal that would allow ByteDance to own as much as half of TikTok.
The latest development has surfaced several potential buyers of the popular video app, which is estimated to be worth $50 billion. Here are the top contenders:
MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson)
Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast on YouTube, has indicated an interest in purchasing the short video app. In an X post on Jan. 14, Donaldson said he’d been approached by “many billionaires” who were interested in acquiring TikTok with him.
Donaldson, whose YouTube channel has over 350 million subscribers, has an estimated net worth of $500 million. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Donaldson had joined an all-cash bid for TikTok’s U.S. operations with a group of investors led by the entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley. TikTok ‘s U.S. business is estimated to be worth $50 billion, while its parent company is valued at $300 billion.
Elon Musk
Earlier this money, Chinese officials were reportedly evaluating if TikTok could be sold to Elon Musk, which suggested the Chinese government’s ability to influence ByteDance’s business decisions.
President Trump has said that he would be open to Musk buying the app “if he wanted to.” Unlike MrBeast, Musk, whose net worth stands at $423 billion, could easily afford the purchase. He has not clarified whether he is interested in TikTok.
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO is also the owner of X, formerly Twitter. So, his purchase of TikTok could potentially draw antitrust scrutiny. Not to mention, his proximity to Trump, dubbing himself the “first friend,” could invite accusations of collusion.
Larry Ellison
So far, Oracle founder Larry Ellison is the most promising owner of TikTok U.S. “I’d like Larry to buy it,” Trump said of a potential deal during a press conference last week. A few days later, NPR reported that the White House was in talks with Oracle and outside investors to pursue such a deal. Ellison currently serves as Oracle’s company executive chairman and chief technology office.
Ellison also attempted to make a deal to keep TikTok operational in the U.S. after Trump’s 2020 executive order to ban the app. Oracle already has ties with TikTok. Since 2023, Bytedance has had TikTok’s U.S. operations use Oracle to host the app’s U.S. user data. TikTok CEO Chew led this effort to alleviate concerns about data privacy from U.S. regulators.
Others
Last week, Perplexity AI, reportedly made a bid to merge with TikTok to create a new corporate entity. The high-flying A.I. company is valued at $9 billion, meaning it would require significant outside capital to make the deal possible.
Other potential buyers include the philanthropist Frank Mccourt’s Project Liberty, which is raising capital to make a bid for TikTok in order to “rearchitect the platform” and protect user data. McCourt is a billionaire who previously owned the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. The project is supported by the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt.
Other potential bidders include Trump’s former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Shark Tank investor Kevin O’Leary, and the private equity firm General Atlantic.
