China Reportedly Considering Plan To Sell TikTok US to Elon Musk

Video app TikTok is facing a ban in the U.S. under a new law signed by President Joe Biden last year. However, the Chinese government reportedly has a plan to avoid the ban — selling the app’s U.S. operations to Elon Musk.

Right now, the U.S. Supreme Court is reviewing the law, which requires TikTok parent ByteDance to divest the U.S. portion of the app’s business or cease operating in the country. Under the alleged plan, Musk would run two social media platforms, X and TikTok’s U.S. operations.

Whether ByteDance or Musk know of the Chinese government’s purported purchase plan is speculative. It is likely, though, Beijing officials are looking at the sale option alongside various other alternatives, including a fight against the potential ban as well as a plea to incoming President Donald Trump.

Neither Musk nor TikTok has confirmed any such acquisition discussions. “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” wrote a TikTok spokesperson in an email to CNBC.

Would Elon Musk Consider Buying TikTok?

Despite Musk’s silence about any potential offers to buy TikTok, the billionaire does think TikTok should be available to U.S. users. In his opinion, a ban would violate a basic right provided in the Constitution.

“TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the X platform,” he wrote on X in April 2024. “Doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression. It is not what America stands for.”

Musk purchasing TikTok may not be a bad move for X. TikTok has over 170 million U.S. users and X could leverage that into advertising money, giving ad buyers a larger audience for promoting goods and services. Also, Musk’s AI startup, xAI, could use TikTok’s data for training its large language models (LLMs).

In anticipation of a ban, many TikTok influencers are encouraging their followers to move to another video app — Lemon8. Yet, what many seemingly don’t realize: Lemon8 is also owned by ByteDance, and could also potentially be restricted.

Legal experts believe the Supreme Court will uphold the law, meaning ByteDance will need to sell U.S. TikTok. Not doing so by Jan. 19 means the short-video platform will disappear from app stores and be unavailable to U.S.-based users.