Who Will Buy TikTok? 8 Contenders After Trump’s Sunday Morning Hint

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Donald Trump told Maria Bartiroma on Sunday Morning Futures that he found a buyer who is ready to snap up TikTok’s U.S. business, and that it was a “group of very wealthy people.” With the clock on a congressionally mandated divest‑or‑ban law ticking, here are the likeliest buyers—and why they make (or don’t make) sense.

What Trump Actually Said

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Trump promised to name the prospective buyer “in about two weeks,” adding that any deal still needs a green‑light from Beijing. That matters because the sale must satisfy both Washington’s national‑security concerns and China’s tech‑export controls.

Why TikTok Has to Sell

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The Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary‑Controlled Applications Act (2024) gave ByteDance until January to divest TikTok’s U.S. assets or face a nationwide ban. However, President Trump extended the deadline. In any case, the law followed years of bipartisan worry that Chinese ownership could expose Americans’ data and shape information flows. Divestiture is now the only path to keep the app operating in the United States unless Trump continues to intervene.

Front‑Runner: Oracle‑Led Security Consortium

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Oracle is rumored to anchor a bid that would blend its cloud infrastructure with capital from U.S. investment firms such as Blackstone, Andreessen Horowitz and General Atlantic. The structure echoes the 2020 Oracle‑Walmart framework once blessed by regulators and directly addresses data‑localization demands while avoiding Big‑Tech antitrust headaches.

Hot Pursuer: Microsoft

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After flirting with a purchase in 2020, Microsoft is reportedly back. Absorbing TikTok would boost its advertising ambitions, feed its AI models, and inject creator‑economy DNA into Xbox and LinkedIn. The main obstacles are cultural fit—Microsoft is still largely enterprise‑focused—and the possibility of extra scrutiny from European regulators.

Dark Horse: Amazon

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Amazon already powers TikTok Shop’s fulfillment network. Full ownership could supercharge social commerce, fuel Prime Video cross‑promotion, and supply a torrent of ad data. Yet Amazon is fighting multiple antitrust probes, and White House insiders have described its early‑2025 approach as “unlikely to progress.”

Financial Muscle: Private‑Equity All‑Stars

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Blackstone, KKR, Silver Lake and Susquehanna have explored teaming with existing non‑Chinese ByteDance investors on a carve‑out that leaves TikTok independent but U.S.‑controlled. Supporters like the neutrality; critics worry about aggressive cost cutting and a thinner creator‑support budget.

Product‑Led Pivot: AppLovin

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Mobile‑marketing firm AppLovin has floated a reverse‑merger that would fold TikTok’s non‑China operations into itself, pairing short‑video reach with its ad‑tech stack and gaming portfolio. The snag is scale: AppLovin’s market value hovers around $80 billion, while TikTok is sometimes priced near $100 billion.

Creator‑Owned Vision: Tim Stokely & Zoop

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OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely and Web3 startup Zoop want to let TikTok creators hold equity via blockchain tokens. The “ownership economy” idea intrigues some lawmakers, but national‑security lawyers blanch at adding cryptocurrency complexity to an already delicate transaction.

Wildcard: Elon Musk / X Corp

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Musk has mused about integrating short video into X (formerly Twitter). Buying TikTok would deliver an instant audience and fresh ad revenue, but financing another mega‑deal so soon after the $44 billion Twitter buyout—and steering it past skeptical regulators—makes this a long shot.

Fallback Plan: Stand‑Alone IPO or Spin‑Off

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If private talks collapse, ByteDance could float a minority stake in a U.S.‑listed “TikTok Global,” reducing its own holding below a controlling level while letting American institutions take the lead. Beijing may prefer this to handing the algorithm to a rival, yet U.S. officials would still insist on ironclad governance and data‑security terms.

What Happens Next?

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Trump indicated the bidder’s identity should be revealed by mid‑July. Even then, three hurdles remain: approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, clearance from China’s Ministry of Commerce, and acceptance by TikTok’s 170 million American users (per backlinko),

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