Here’s Who Could Buy TikTok As Supreme Court Considers Ban

Topline

As the Supreme Court considers whether to ban TikTok in the U.S., several companies and billionaires have been rumored to be, or have expressed interest in, buying ByteDance’s popular social media app to prevent the ban, which is set to go into effect Sunday.

ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is required to sell the app to a U.S.-based buyer or face a … [+] nationwide ban.

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Key Facts

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 MrBeastwhose 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.”

Project Libertyan internet advocacy group run by billionaire Frank McCourtsubmitted a proposal—backed by “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary, Guggenheim Securities and others—on Jan. 9 to buy TikTok’s U.S.-based assets, saying the group would restructure the company to collect less user data.

A former TikTok employee suggested to Forbes that Amazon could potentially purchase the app, as Amazon—the third-largest advertiser on the app—has deepened its relationship with the platform after announcing a partnership allowing users to browse and purchase Amazon products on TikTok.

The video-sharing platform Rumble offered to buy TikTok in March 2024, saying the company was “ready to join a consortium with other parties” to purchase the app, though neither Rumble nor CEO Chris Pavlovski disclosed details about the offer.

Bobby KotickActivision Blizzard’s former CEO, expressed interest in purchasing TikTok and has floated the idea with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and others to help finance the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal, though Kotick has not commented publicly on the offer.

Former Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told CNBC in March 2024 he planned to “put together a group” to buy TikTok, later telling Bloomberg in May he had reached out to “a lot of tech companies” about buying the app and recreating its algorithm, which ByteDance has said would not be included in a sale.

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What Companies Have Tried To Buy Tiktok?

Microsoft reportedly offered to buy TikTok from ByteDance in August 2020, and the deal—referred to by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as the “strangest thing I’ve ever worked on”—nearly closed before falling apart. Oracle and Walmart announced in September 2020 the companies had reached a deal to acquire TikTok, but that deal fell through after the Biden administration reportedly stopped it from moving forward to address the app’s potential security risks.

How Much Is Tiktok Worth?

Dan Ives, an analyst for Wedbush Securities, told CBS the financial services firm had valued TikTok at about $100 billion.

What To Watch For

The Supreme Court signaled it would rule on TikTok’s ban this week before a ban takes effect on Jan. 19. It’s possible the court could delay the ban until after Jan. 19, and Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said the court could be provided additional time to issue a ruling.

Key Background

President Joe Biden signed a law in April 2024 that included a nationwide ban on TikTok unless ByteDance sold the app, after lawmakers for years expressed concerns about TikTok’s ties to China. Forbes previously reported about TikTok spying on journalists, promoting Chinese propaganda on the app criticizing U.S. politicians, mishandling user data—including financial information, Social Security numbers and personal contacts—and tracking “sensitive words.” TikTok and ByteDance have denied any wrongdoing or links to the Chinese government, claiming in a legal filing in May the proposed ban was “simply not possible: not commercially, not technologically, not legally.”

Forbes Valuation

Musk is the wealthiest person on Earth with an estimated net worth of $428.8 billion. McCourt, the former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has a net worth valued at $1.4 billion.