The bomb was dropped by Bloomberg, citing sources involved in the negotiations. After Twitter, today become X, Elon Musk could get its hands on another social network, one of the big ones, at least in the US: the Chinese government is in fact evaluating a plan that includes the acquisition of TikTok's US operations by the South African billionaire in order to prevent the app from being banned in the United States.
TikTok, Elon Musk and the Chinese Plan
The date to mark in red on the calendar is that of 19st January, the day on which the law, currently under consideration by the US Supreme Court, comes into force, which would force ByteDance, the Chinese company that controls TikTok, to divest its American operations or face banishment.
Precisely for this reason Beijing is apparently evaluating all possible options. And among these there is also the Musk hypothesis. The plan cited by Bloomberg It envisages Elon Musk running both X, which he currently owns, and TikTok's U.S. operations.
According to the report, Chinese government officials have not yet decided whether or not to proceed with the sale of the US operations to the number one of X, Tesla and Space X. At the moment it would be a preliminary plan and the number one option remains to keep TikTok in the hands of ByteDance. The problem is that in the US the road seems increasingly uphill, especially considering that the judges of the Supreme Court they indicated at the January 10 hearing on arguments that they are likely to decide to comply with current law which requires the transfer.
Senior Chinese officials had already begun discussing contingency plans for TikTok as part of a broader discussion on how work with the Donald Trump administration, one of which involves Musk, according to sources familiar with the matter. Asked by MSNBC and Reuters, a TikTok spokesperson said he could not “comment on pure fiction.” No comment also from X and Musk.
The TikTok Data That Elon Musk Likes So Much
A potential high-profile deal with one of Trump’s closest allies, who spent $250 million to reelect the Tycoon and will also join the new US administration, has a certain allure for the Chinese government, which is expected to have a say in the eventual sale of TikTok.
But the deal might not displease Musk himself. TikTok actually has 170 million users in the US. By acquiring the app, X's chief executive could bolster the social network's efforts to attract advertisers. In addition, Musk, who in April said he opposed a ban on the Chinese app in the U.S., has also founded a separate artificial intelligence company, XAI, which could take advantage of the huge amounts of data generated by TikTok.
It’s unclear how much ByteDance knows about the Mandarin leadership’s discussions or whether TikTok and Musk were involved. It’s also unclear whether Musk, TikTok, and ByteDance have held talks about the terms of a potential deal. What is certain is that the news could shake up the current balance of power, giving the world’s richest man even more power.
