- President Donald Trump said he would be open to Elon Musk or Larry Ellison buying TikTok.
- Trump previously floated a joint venture, saying that the US should own half of the app.
- Trump has signed an executive order that gives TikTok another 75 days to figure out a new game plan.
A day after his inauguration, President Donald Trump said he’d be on board with Tesla CEO Elon Musk or Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison buying TikTok.
In a Tuesday press briefing announcing a $500 billion artificial intelligence joint venture with Oracle, Trump said he was open to the idea of Ellison or Musk buying TikTok.
When asked by a reporter if he would be open to Musk buying the app, he said, “I would be, if he wanted to buy it, yes.”
“I’d like Larry to buy it, too,” he added.
While Musk has not directly expressed interest in buying TikTok, he said on X on Sunday that he has “been against a TikTok ban for a long time” because it “goes against freedom of speech.”
A handful of big-name investors have shown interest in buying the app. “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary has said that he, in collaboration with former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt, would be interested in purchasing the app.
YouTuber MrBeast also said in an X post on January 13, “Okay fine, I’ll buy Tik Tok so it doesn’t get banned.” Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the YouTuber was joining a group of investors led by tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley, who have expressed interest in buying the app.
But in 2024, ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese owner, said it would rather shut down TikTok in the US than sell it.
For now, TikTok’s fate in the US hangs in the balance after the Supreme Court on Friday upheld the divest-or-ban law. This law requires ByteDance to divest from the platform in the US, or stop operating in the country.
TikTok went dark for its 170 million US users on Saturday. But hours later, its operations were restored.
Shortly after his inauguration, Trump signed an executive order to pause the ban, which gives TikTok another 75 days to figure out a game plan.
Trump also suggested on Monday that the US should own half of TikTok.
“So I think, like a joint venture, I think we would have a joint venture with the people from TikTok. We’ll see what happens,” Trump added, without specifying who he wanted to have as TikTok’s US partner.
Trump’s order to delay the TikTok ban has prompted some opposition from within the GOP.
Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas — who sits on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence — and Sen. Pete Ricketts of Nebraska wrote in a joint statement on Sunday that there is “no legal basis” for TikTok to get an extension.
In the statement, the senators also lauded Amazon, Apple, Google, and Microsoft for complying with the ban.
“President Trump said he signed the executive order to ‘make a deal to protect our national security,'” Ian Swanson, Ricketts’ press secretary, told BI.
“Senator Ricketts agrees that protecting our national security is paramount and that can only be done by ridding TikTok of all ties with Communist China,” Swanson added.
Representatives for Musk, Oracle, and Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular business hours.
