Amazon Enters Late-Stage Bidding for TikTok Amid Looming U.S. Ban
WASHINGTON — As a U.S. ban looms for TikTok this Saturday, Amazon has reportedly submitted a last-minute bid to acquire the popular social media platform, according to a Trump administration official on Wednesday.
The official, remaining anonymous due to lack of authorization to speak publicly, stated that Amazon’s offer was formally presented in a letter addressed to Vice President J.D. Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The New York Times was the first to break the news of the potential acquisition.
On Inauguration Day, President Donald Trump granted TikTok a temporary reprieve, effectively overriding a previously upheld law by the Supreme Court, which had deemed the ban necessary for national security reasons.
The existing law mandates that ByteDance, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, either sell the platform to a vetted buyer or cease operations in the United States. While Trump has hinted at potentially extending the pause on the ban, he also anticipates a deal to materialize by the Saturday deadline.
Amazon has so far declined requests for comments. TikTok has yet to give an official response.
News of the Amazon bid emerged while Trump was scheduled to confer with senior officials on Wednesday concerning the approaching deadline for TikTok’s sale.
While ByteDance’s intentions regarding a sale remain uncertain, several potential buyers have expressed interest in recent months. These include the software firm Oracle and the investment group Blackstone. Oracle disclosed in 2020 that it held a 12.5% stake in TikTok Global, securing its role as the app’s cloud technology provider.
In January, Perplexity AI, an artificial intelligence startup, proposed a merger to ByteDance, aiming to integrate Perplexity’s business with TikTok’s U.S. operations. Last month, Perplexity detailed its strategy for rebuilding TikTok in a blog post, asserting its unique position to revamp the TikTok algorithm without establishing a monopoly.
According to Perplexity’s post, “Any acquisition by a consortium of investors could in effect keep ByteDance in control of the algorithm, while any acquisition by a competitor would likely create a monopoly in the short form video and information space.”
The company added it would redesign the TikTok algorithm and guarantee infrastructure development and maintenance within “American data centers with American oversight, ensuring alignment with domestic privacy standards and regulations.”
Other potential bidders include a consortium organized by billionaire businessman Frank McCourt, which recently recruited Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as a strategic adviser. Investors in the consortium say they’ve offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash for TikTok’s U.S. platform. Jesse Tinsley, the founder of the payroll firm Employer.com, says he too has organized a consortium and is offering ByteDance more than $30 billion for the platform. Wyoming small business owner Reid Rasner has also announced that he offered ByteDance roughly $47.5 billion.
Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have cautioned that ByteDance could potentially share user information—such as browsing history, location data, and biometric identifiers—with the Chinese government. TikTok denies these accusations, stating it has never shared such data and would refuse any such request. The U.S. government has not yet presented evidence of this having occurred.
Trump has a substantial following on TikTok, acknowledging the platform’s influence in engaging younger voters.
During his previous term, he expressed skepticism toward TikTok, issuing executive orders that prohibited transactions with ByteDance and the owners of the Chinese messaging app WeChat.
—Parvini reported from Los Angeles.