TikTok — the fifth most widely used social media platform in the world after Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram — is facing a fast-approaching nationwide ban in the U.S., where 170 million of the app’s users reside.
The ban, which many have argued would infringe on the constitutional right to free speech, is expected to take effect on Sunday, January 19th unless TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, can find an American buyer for the popular video-sharing app.
Despite lawsuits from ByteDance and various TikTok users, the ban, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in April, was upheld by the Supreme Court on Friday, Jan. 17.
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As the ban’s deadline has grown nearer, several potential buyers have emerged. Should a purchase agreement be made before the ban goes into effect, the legislation stipulates that a 90-day extension could go into effect, allowing TikTok to remain active in the U.S. temporarily while the details of the deal are ironed out.
Here’s an overview of some of the people and companies that could potentially strike a deal to keep TikTok alive stateside before the clock strikes midnight and the 18th becomes the 19th:
Kevin O’Leary & Frank McCourt
Kevin O’Leary, a longtime venture capitalist best known as one of the panelists on ABC’s “Shark Tank” since its inaugural season, has teamed up with Dodgers owner Frank McCourt to finance an offer to ByteDance. “Right now, $20 billion’s on the table. Cash,” said O’Leary on “America’s Newsroom” just moments after the Supreme Court upheld the ban on the 17th.
Related: Kevin O’Leary’s net worth ahead of possible TikTok purchase
$20 billion is far more than O’Leary or McCourt have personally. O’Leary’s net worth is estimated at $400 million, making him the second-richest permanent investor on “Shark Tank,” while McCourt’s wealth has been estimated at around $1.4 billion.
The pair has apparently secured additional investors and debt financing to complete the proposed deal. Together, the group calls itself both Project Liberty and/or the People’s Bid for TikTok.
O’Leary began speaking about this plan in early January, telling Fox, “I have joined with Frank Mccourt to buy TikTok, it’s a very complicated deal, it’s a multibillion-dollar deal … I wanted to let [the president] know as well as others in his cabinet that we’re doing this … we’re going to need their help.”
Elon Musk
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and majority owner of TikTok competitor X (formerly Twitter), has been floated as a potential buyer for the platform, although he has not publicly stated any such intention.
Back in April 2024, when the ban legislation was passed, Musk posted, “In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the X platform. Doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression. It is not what America stands for.”
Chinese officials have proposed that Musk take TikTok over and run it alongside the X platform in the U.S., Bloomberg reported on January 14th. X’s user base has declined since Musk took it private, so a TikTok acquisition on his part could prove to be a boon to both X’s user base and its advertising revenue.
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Musk’s close relationship with President Donald Trump (and role in his Department of Government Efficiency) would no doubt help facilitate the platform’s transition into American ownership.
As of mid-January 2025, Musk was the richest individual in the world with an estimated net worth of around $434 billion. All this being said, there is no indication that Musk has made an offer, let alone met with ByteDance executives or even publicly expressed interest in purchasing the platform.
MrBeast
MrBeast, the world’s most popular YouTuber with over 340 million subscribers, has been tapped by his fans as a potential TikTok buyer.
On Monday, Jan 13th, MrBeast, whose government name is James Donaldson, responded, posting, “Okay, fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned” on Musk’s X platform. Apparently, this post made waves among America’s moneyed class, as the following day, he posted, “Unironically, I’ve had so many billionaires reach out to me since I tweeted this. Let’s see if we can pull this off.”
While MrBeast’s first comment struck most as humorous, his follow-up post seemed to indicate he was beginning to look more seriously into the idea of teaming up with wealthy investors to finance an offer. Since Tuesday the 14th, however, Donaldson has not provided an update, leaving his fans to speculate as to whether some sort of proposal may be in the works.
More on TikTok:
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- What Supreme Court’s TikTok decision means for creators
Bobby Kotick
Bobby Kotick, former CEO of massive video game firm Activision Blizzard, has expressed interest in purchasing TikTok’s American assets since early 2024, although he hasn’t made an offer and has not been as vocal as other potential buyers — like McCourt and O’Leary — as the ban deadline has drawn nearer.
Like almost any other individual buyer, Kotek would need to partner with other investors and likely secure debt financing in order to raise enough funds to make such a deal. According to Forbes, one such financier with whom Kotick has had preliminary talks is OpenAI founder Sam Altman, whose net worth is estimated to be $1.1 billion
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Steve Mnuchin
Steve Mnuchin, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, indicated in March, prior to the ban’s official legislation, that he intended to gather a group of financiers — including investors and tech companies — to purchase the app from ByteDance.
Any sale of TikTok to an American party reportedly won’t include the app’s all-important algorithm, which is used to recommend relevant content and creators to users. This algorithm is part of what makes TikTok so addicting, and thus popular.
Mnuchin’s plan to buy the app hinged on help from tech companies familiar with such algorithms. In an interview with Bloomberg, Mnuchin stated, “I’ve actually spoken to a lot of tech companies on working about rebuilding this … I do believe the algorithms could be rebuilt.”
Amazon
While Amazon has not publicly expressed any plans to purchase TikTok, a former employee of the e-commerce giant reportedly told Forbes that this could be a possibility.
Amazon already has deep ties to TikTok — it’s the third most prolific advertiser on the platform, and back in August 2024, it began allowing products to be purchased directly from the TikTok app.
Rumble
Back in March 2024, Rumble, a video platform and cloud services provider that hosts Trump’s Truth Social platform, publicly offered to participate in the purchase of TikTok as part of a “consortium” of other parties, but neither CEO Chris Pavlovski nor any spokesperson for the company at large has followed up publicly about this offer.
Walmart’s Doug McMillon and Oracle
Back in 2020, when Donald Trump unsuccessfully tried to force a TikTok sale, Walmart CEO Doug Micmillon partnered with tech giant Oracle, which hosts the TikTok data of American users on its servers, to create a plan to purchase the app. Since then, however, both parties have been fairly quiet on the matter.
The future of TikTok in the United States
As the January 19 ban deadline fast approaches, social media users worldwide are eagerly anticipating some kind of last-minute deal that could trigger the 90-day moratorium written into the ban’s legislation.
According to Kevin O’Leary, who, along with Frank McCourt and Project Liberty, represents by far the most concrete offer to purchase TikTok, violating the ban could be costly for any company that chooses to do so.
In speaking with Fox, O’Leary stated, “As of midnight on the 19th, any service provider — that could be an Apple, that could be an Oracle, it could be a video compression technology company that’s being paid as a consulting service, any of them — to keep this thing alive, it’s subject to [a] $5,000 a day fine times 170 million. That’s over $1 billion a day … who’s going to take on 1,000,000,007 risks at midnight? Who’s going to do that? What counsel would advise? This is the most interesting, complicated, crazy situation I’ve ever been involved in. I’m really excited about it.”
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