These Billionaires, Companies And Investors-elon Musk, Kevin O’leary And More-could Buy Tiktok As Ban Looms – Forbes

January 19, 2025 TheMcgwire

These Billionaires, Companies And Investors-elon Musk, Kevin O’leary And More-could Buy Tiktok As Ban Looms

Topline

The AI search engine startup Perplexity AI has reportedly submitted a bid to merge with TikTok, as other companies and billionaires have rumored to be, or have expressed in, buying ByteDance’s popular social media app to prevent a looming ban, which is set to go in effect Sunday.

“Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary said he put up $20 billion for the app.

Perplexity AI submitted an offer to ByteDance to merge the company with TikTok and New Capital Partners, in a deal that would allow for most of ByteDance’s investors to retain their equity stakes, a source familiar with the situation told CNBC .

Chinese government officials have considered selling TikTok’s U.S. operations to Tesla CEO Elon Musk as China discusses navigating a relationship with President-elect Donald Trump, whose ties to Musk have tightened in recent months, Bloomberg reported (ByteDance, responding to Bloomberg’s report, told Forbes it “can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction.”)

YouTuber MrBeast , whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, wrote on X he would “buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned,” later claiming he had “so many billionaires” reach out to him and said he would “see if we can pull this off.”

🔗SOURCE ➡️ Forbes

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