Chinese officials are evaluating the option of Elon Musk becoming the new owner of TikTok ahead of the app's imminent United States ban.
According to Bloomberg intelligence analysts, the app's valuation in the U.S. ranges from US$40 million (A$64.5 million) to US$50 million. This is similar to the US$44 million he paid for X (formally known as Twitter).
Musk is also a strong ally of incoming president Donald Trump, who has recently supported TikTok. Musk has also expressed that TikTok staying in the U.S. would be beneficial to X.
“In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the X platform,” Musk posted in April 2024.
The scenario being discussed by the Chinese government would see Musk’s X taking control of TikTok US and running the businesses together. This would boost ad sales for X and potentially stop users migrating to Chinese Chinese-owned app RedNote, or Xiaohongshu, which was the most downloaded app in the U.S. App Store earlier this week.
It is unclear how much ByteDance knows about the Chinese government’s discussions about Musk’s ownership.
“We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction,” a ByteDance representative said.
It is currently unclear how Musk, even with a net worth of more than US$400 billion would afford TikTok as he is still paying off sizeable loans for his X purchase.
