Chinese Officials Consider Selling TikTok’s US Operations to Elon Musk
Chinese officials are in preliminary talks about selling TikTok’s operations in the United States to billionaire Elon Musk, according to Bloomberg News, in the event that the short-video app is unable to avoid an impending ban. Beijing officials prefer that TikTok remains under the control of its parent company, ByteDance, sources reported.
One of the scenarios being considered is that Musk’s social media platform X would take control of TikTok’s US operations and run the business together. However, officials have yet to reach a consensus on how to proceed.
The US government has been pushing to ban TikTok over national security concerns about China, citing the country’s “golden share” in ByteDance, which gives the government power over the company. A recent Supreme Court ruling seemed to incline towards upholding a law that would force a sale or ban TikTok in the US by January 19.
TikTok has denied that the Chinese government’s stake has any bearing on its global operations outside of China. ByteDance has not commented on the reports, and neither have Musk, X, or China’s Cyberspace and Ministry of Commerce. A TikTok spokesperson referred to the report as “pure fiction.”
It is unclear whether ByteDance is aware of the discussions or has engaged in talks with Musk regarding a potential deal.
