Chinese officials are considering a potential deal where Elon Musk acquires TikTok's US operations if the short-video app faces a ban. While Beijing prefers TikTok remains under ByteDance's ownership, the US Supreme Court may uphold the ban. Discussions involve Musk potentially merging TikTok US with his platform X (formerly Twitter) and leveraging xAI's artificial intelligence capabilities. The Chinese government sees this as a potential area for reconciliation with the incoming Trump administration.
Chinese officials are evaluating a potential option that involves Elon Musk acquiring the US operations of TikTok if the company fails to fend off a controversial ban on the short-video app, according to people familiar with the matter.
Under one scenario that’s been discussed by the Chinese government, Musk’s X—the former Twitter—would take control of TikTok US and run the businesses together, the people said. With more than 170 million users in the US, TikTok could bolster X’s efforts to attract advertisers. Musk also founded a separate artificial intelligence company, xAI, that could benefit from the huge amounts of data generated from TikTok.
ByteDance and TikTok representatives didn’t respond to messages seeking comment. The Cyberspace Administration of China and China’s Ministry of Commerce, government agencies that could be involved in decisions about TikTok’s future, also didn’t respond to requests for comment. TikTok’s US operations could be valued at around $40 billion to $50 billion, Bloomberg Intelligence analysts Mandeep Singh and Damian Reimertz estimated last year. That’s a substantial sum even for the world’s richest person. It’s not clear how Musk could pull off such a transaction, whether it would require the sale of other holdings, or whether the US government would approve. He paid $44 billion for Twitter in 2022, and is still paying off sizable loans.
A majority of the Supreme Court justices suggested the security concerns take priority over free speech, although they have yet to issue a formal decision. President-elect Trump, who takes office January 20, has sought to delay the TikTok ban—which takes effect January 19—so he can work on the negotiations. He has said he wants to “save” the app and there’s been speculation he could take last-minute action to sidestep the ban.
One alternative for TikTok would be to move its existing US customers over to a similar app—with different branding—to potentially sidestep the ban, one of the people said. It’s not clear how effective such a move would be.
Politics TIKTOK ELON MUSK BYTEDANCE US BAN CHINESE GOVERNMENT DONALD TRUMP
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