Amazon has submitted a bid to purchase TikTok, according to a Trump administration official. This offer comes just days before a U.S. ban on the platform is set to take effect. The official, who spoke anonymously due to the sensitive nature of the information, revealed that the proposal was delivered in a letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
In the past, former President Donald Trump had delayed the ban, which was upheld by the Supreme Court as necessary for national security. Under the current law, TikTok’s Chinese parent company, ByteDance, is required to either sell the platform to an approved U.S. buyer or remove it from the market. Trump has hinted at potentially extending the ban but also expects a deal to be finalized soon.
Amazon has not commented on the bid, and TikTok did not respond to requests for comment.
The revelation of Amazon’s offer coincides with Trump’s meeting with senior officials to discuss the looming TikTok sale deadline. While ByteDance’s plans remain unclear, several companies have shown interest in acquiring TikTok. Notably, Oracle and Blackstone have been potential bidders, with Oracle having previously secured a stake in TikTok Global in 2020 as its cloud technology provider.
In January, the AI startup Perplexity AI proposed a merger with TikTok’s U.S. operations, suggesting it could rebuild TikTok’s algorithm without creating a monopoly. Perplexity emphasized that any acquisition by a group of investors might allow ByteDance to retain control over the algorithm, while a competitor’s purchase could lead to monopolistic practices in the short-form video space.
Perplexity’s plan includes developing TikTok’s infrastructure in American data centers under U.S. oversight to meet domestic privacy standards.
Other contenders include a consortium led by billionaire Frank McCourt, who has enlisted Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian as a strategic adviser. This group reportedly offered ByteDance $20 billion in cash for TikTok’s U.S. platform. Additionally, Jesse Tinsley, founder of Employer.com, claims his consortium has proposed over $30 billion, while Wyoming small business owner Reid Rasner has made an offer of approximately $47.5 billion.
Concerns about data privacy persist, as the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could potentially share user data with the Chinese government. TikTok has consistently denied these allegations, asserting that it has never shared user data and would not comply with such requests if made. The U.S. government has not provided evidence to support these claims.
Notably, Trump has millions of followers on TikTok and has credited the platform with boosting his popularity among young voters. During his first term, he took a critical stance on TikTok, issuing executive orders to ban transactions with ByteDance and the Chinese app WeChat.
