President Donald Trump has mentioned a buyer has been found for TikTok’s U.S. operations, and that he will be able to share more about the deal in the coming weeks. “We have a buyer for TikTok, by the way,” Trump said, adding “I think I’ll probably need China’s approval, and I think President Xi [Jinping] will probably do it.”
While he did not mention who exactly the buyer would be, he said it’s a group of “very wealthy people.” He mentioned this while discussing the possibility of another pause on his “reciprocal” tariffs on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”
Analysts have previously estimated the U.S. operations of TikTok to be worth anywhere between $20 billion and $50 billion.
READ: TikTok gets 90-day extension on US sale-or-ban deadline (June 18, 2025)
TikTok has recently been granted a third 90-day extension in enforcement of a law that requires the social media platform to divest from its Chinese-owned parent company ByteDance, or else face a ban.
The U.S. Supreme Court had upheld the “sell-or-ban” law back in January, when the platform went dark on Jan. 19 for the American users, but was restored within 24 hours. President Trump, who took office earlier this year, signed an executive order which gave the app an initial 75 days to find a buyer by April 5. Trump extended the deadline for another 75 days in April, and now, yet another extension has been granted.
A deal was nearly finalized in April, however that got stalled due to the additional tariffs imposed on China. “There are key matters to be resolved. Any agreement will be subject to approval under Chinese law,” TikTok parent company ByteDance said after Trump’s tariff policy stalled progress on the deal in April.
While Trump has initially attempted to ban the social media app during his first term, he claims to have since softened his attitude towards it. “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points,” Trump said in December 2024, referring to the presidential election.
READ: TikTok is back on US app stores, download ready (February 14, 2025)
Trump has previously said he would be open to TikTok being sold to cloud computing giant Oracle, whose co-founder Larry Ellison is a long-time ally of Trump’s. Billionaire Frank McCourt, Canadian businessman Kevin O’Leary, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian are part of another team bidding for the platform. YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, also known as Mr. Beast had also expressed an interest in buying TikTok as part of a different investor group.
It is not clear if the deal would comply with the U.S. law on TikTok, if ByteDance chose not to share the app’s algorithm with the U.S. buyers. Private equity firms have been hesitant to invest in a deal without some form of indemnification.