Contrary to recent speculation surrounding a potential intel acquisition involving Elon Musk, a verified new development has surfaced. YouTube and TikTok star MrBeast, and some other billionaires are making a serious bid to acquire TikTok. The potential purchase aims to save Tiktok from facing a permanent ban in the United States.
MrBeast first announced this in an X post that seemed rather like a joke. However, he followed up with a TikTok video with his lawyer, mentioning that he had just met with billionaires, and they were all set with an offer to buy TikTok. This investor group is led by Jesse Tinsley, the CEO and founder of Employer.com, and other high-net-worth individuals, including MrBeast.
As a Chinese-owned company, U.S. officials view TikTok as a threat to national security. Consequently, the United States Supreme Court decided to ban TikTok unless ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company sells it to a non-Chinese company.
The previous deadline for the sell-or-ban was January 19th, 2025, and on the night of Saturday, 18th January 2025, Americans temporarily lost access to TikTok. All who tried to access the app were welcomed by the error message: “Sorry, TikTok isn’t available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, that means you can’t use TikTok for now.”
But like a glimpse of hope, President Donald Trump announced after his inauguration on Monday that he would delay the ban for 75 more days, giving ByteDance more time to sell to a non-Chinese company. However, ByteDance has stated that it has no plans to sell to a new owner and would rather shut down in the US if need be.
Despite ByteDance’s reluctance to sell TikTok, bids are rushing in, with the Tinsley-led investor group being just one. Although unconfirmed by ByteDance, the Wall Street Journal reports that China has been contemplating selling part of ByteDance to popular X owner Elon Musk. Another investor group called “The People’s Bid For TikTok” has reportedly offered to buy TikTok as well.
While it remains unclear how much these groups are offering, estimates indicate that TikTok is currently worth way over $50 billion. The App’s assets, aside from its highly valued algorithm, are worth between $40 billion to $50 billion. As the 75-day deadline approaches, there remain two possible outcomes that could help TikTok survive in America: either ByteDance yields and sells to a new owner or President Trump changes the previous Supreme Court decision that banned TikTok. Otherwise, the US will likely place a permanent ban on TikTok.