The latest candidate to become the potential American face of TikTok: Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
A ban on TikTok in the United States could take effect on Sunday, January 19, unless Beijing-based parent company ByteDance sells the video-sharing app’s US assets.
President Joe Biden signed a bill to sell or ban TikTok on national security grounds in April after it was passed by Congress. The Supreme Court, which last week heard ByteDance’s challenge to the move, appeared ready to uphold the ban, which was raised over concerns that TikTok shares user data with the Chinese government and could manipulate content.
Some lawmakers have proposed legislation to delay the ban as President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to “save” TikTok, asking the Supreme Court to delay its approval to give him time to take office and pursue a political solution.
Biden could extend the ban by 90 days if he learns that ByteDance is making significant progress toward a sale, Reuters reported. Which brings us to Elon Musk. Chinese officials have discussed Musk investing in or taking control of TikTok’s US operations as a way to avoid the ban, the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the situation.
Here’s what we know.
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Elon Musk in charge of TikTok? Why it might make sense
The world’s richest man, Musk also owns X, the social media network formerly known as Twitter, and donated more than $250 million to Trump’s re-election campaign. Trump may approve of Musk solving the TikTok problem, as he has already appointed Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to lead his new Department of Government Efficiency group to cut government spending.
Musk was raised in discussions among Chinese officials amid contingency plans for a TikTok ban and larger talks to work with the Trump administration, Bloomberg reported. The tech CEO has met frequently with Chinese officials and has been supportive of the country and its leaders, The Wall Street Journal reported. When asked about the TikTok-Musk rumors, a TikTok representative told the paper, “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction.”
Musk and Chinese President Xi Jinping have “a strong relationship,” so having Musk oversee TikTok’s U.S. operations “is likely one of many options ByteDance is exploring with the Supreme Court case pending final judgment and TikTok’s January 19 ban or waiver deadline,” Dan Ives, managing director at Wedbush Securities, said in an analyst note on Tuesday.
“Given the strong and growing alliance between Trump and Musk, this is not a total shocker as behind the scenes the Trump White House is looking at alternatives if the Supreme Court upholds the ban,” Ives wrote.
Taking TikTok to the US. Here are some candidates
Elon Musk is just the latest name linked to a potential TikTok deal to bypass the US ban. Here are some of the other rumored names:
Frank McCourt and Kevin O’Leary
Billionaire and former owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Frank McCourt in 2021 founded Project Liberty, an initiative aimed at decentralizing the Internet. McCourt has made a formal offer to ByteDance to buy TikTok’s US assets. Kevin O’Leary, one of the hosts of the ABC reality series “Shark Tank,” has also joined the offer, the amount of which has not been made public.
O’Leary, also chairman of O’Leary Ventures, a venture capital investment platform, and chairman of Beanstox, an investment service, told Fox Business that he and McCourt would remove any spying algorithms and pay users who chose to share their data with TikTok.
MrBeast aka James Donaldson
YouTube creator James “Jimmy” Donaldson, better known as MrBeast and host of “Beast Games,” has more than 337 million YouTube subscribers and earns $84 million a year, according to Forbes.
Earlier this week, he posted on X, “Ok ok, I’ll buy Tik Tok so it doesn’t get banned.” How serious the remark was remains to be seen.
Then on Tuesday, he commented on the thread: “Uniquely I’ve had so many billionaires contact me since I posted this, let’s see if we can do this.”
Bobby Kotick
Kotick, the former CEO of video game publisher Activision, has thrown his name out there in the past and has apparently spoken to ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming, The Wall Street Journal reported in 2024.
Doug McMillon
The Walmart CEO has had his eye on TikTok before. In 2020 when TikTok was under pressure from Trump – who at the time called for a ban on TikTok – Walmart and Microsoft proposed an offer to buy the US arm of the platform. Walmart also joined a bid with Oracle to take over TikTok’s US operations in 2020, but ByteDance got an injunction stopping Trump’s planned ban and the deal fell apart.
Since then, the Walmart CEO hosted the ByteDance founder in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2023, The New York Post reported, citing sources close to the situation.
Microsoft
Not a face, but a major global tech presence, Microsoft may try to buy TikTok — this time without Walmart’s help.
“If Microsoft makes an attempt to buy TikTok again, it could help the company expand its social media footprint, but it could also attract the attention of federal regulators,” wrote reporter Chris Morris at Inc.com. That said, Trump did not oppose the acquisition when he pushed for the sale of TikTok during his first administration.
Finding a solution to make TikTok work in the US is a worthwhile endeavor, said Ives of Wedbush Securities.
“There is much more at stake here than just the fate of TikTok, as the high-tension US-China relationship is clearly at stake heading into a very important tariff discussion/negotiation for the Trump administration in the coming months,” Ives wrote.
Contributing: Greta Cross, Jessica Guynn, Bart Jansen, Eric Lagatta and Reuters.
Follow Mike Snider on Threads, Bluesky and X: mikegsnider &@mikegsnider.bsky.social &@mikesnider.
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