With TikTok's days in the U.S. numbered, the Chinese government is discussing options to keep it in America that include a potential deal with Elon Musk, according to media reports.
Chinese officials are considering whether Musk could acquire the app's U.S. operations if it is banned, Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the talks. Musk would still run X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that he acquired in 2022, per the reports.
Musk and Chinese officials have not commented on the reports. A TikTok spokesperson told CNBC: “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction.”
The Supreme Court appears poised to uphold a federal law that requires TikTok's parent company to sell it to a non-Chinese company by Sunday or effectively be banned in the U.S. Justices on Friday heard TikTok's argument that the law violates the First Amendment. The U.S. government said the law addresses a national security risk from a foreign-owned app that can track and collect data on its 170 million American users.
Musk and President-elect Donald Trump have opposed banning TikTok. Trump, whose next term begins Monday, asked the Supreme Court last month to delay a ban so he can negotiate a way to save the app.
It's a turnaround for Trump, who tried to ban TikTok in his first term through an executive order that cited national security concerns. He told CNBC last March he still considers TikTok a threat but that young people "will go crazy without it" and that banning it would empower Facebook, which he said he considers "an enemy of the people."
Following his reelection in November, Trump said he had "a warm spot in my heart" for the app, which he used as a way to reach younger voters.
Media outlets reported that his change of mind came around the same time he met with Jeff Yass, a major Republican donor with financial ties to TikTok's parent company ByteDance. Trump said they didn't discuss the company, per The New York Times.
Trump met in December with TikTok CEO Shou Chew, The Associated Press reported. TikTok executives also reached out to Musk, the Wall Street Journal reported.
