Photo Credit: Solen Feyissa
Trump says he has found a group of “very wealthy people” to buy TikTok, just after extending the divestiture deadline by another 90 days.
In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, Donald Trump said he has found a buyer for TikTok, which he described as a group of “very wealthy people.” He says he will reveal the identities of the interested parties in about two weeks.
The president extended the deadline for China-based ByteDance to divest the U.S. assets of the short-form video app by another 90 days earlier this month. This makes the new deadline September 17.
“We have a buyer for TikTok. I think I’ll need probably China approval and I think President Xi will probably do it,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Baritromo.”
The recent extension of the deadline pertains to a U.S. law passed in 2024 that required TikTok to cease operations in the country by January 19 unless ByteDance divested its U.S. assets. Trump, who says TikTok boosted his support among young voters in the November election, has since extended that deadline three times.
A deal was said to be near completion this spring, which would have turned TikTok’s U.S. assets into a new company, majority-owned and operated by U.S. investors. However, that arrangement was put on the back-burner after China indicated it would not approve any deal following Trump’s announcement of significant trade tariffs on Chinese goods.
The Financial Times reported back in April that the proposed deal with U.S. investors included Andreessen Horowitz, Blackstone, Silver Lake, and other large private capital firms. Existing investors in TikTok include General Atlantic, Susquehanna, KKR, and Coatue. These entities would all have taken stakes in a spun-off U.S. TikTok arm, amounting to about 30% of the business—which is still not a majority and may not meet the requirements laid out in the 2024 legislation.
However, any deal would still need to be approved by ByteDance and the Chinese government. China has made clear that it isn’t interested in a sale and vowed to block any attempts at one following Trump’s tariffs on China. Whether ByteDance and China will be willing to come to the table to discuss another deal remains to be seen.
