Chinese officials are exploring a possible sale of US TikTok operations to billionaire Elon Musk as the video-sharing platform faces a US law requiring imminent Chinese divestitures, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.
The report, citing unidentified people familiar with the matter, outlined a scenario being discussed in Beijing where Musk’s social media company Was known by name.
The report estimates the value of TikTok’s US operations at between $40 and $50 billion.
Although Musk is currently ranked as the world’s wealthiest person, Bloomberg said it was unclear how Musk could execute the transaction, or whether he would need to sell other assets.
The US government passed a law last year under which TikTok’s ByteDance would have to either sell this hugely popular platform or shut it down. It will take effect Sunday — a day before President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
The US government alleges that TikTok allows Beijing to collect data and spy on users and is a medium to spread disinformation. China and ByteDance strongly deny the claims.
TikTok has challenged the law by appealing to the US Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on Friday.
At the hearing, most of the conservative and liberal justices on the nine-member bench appeared skeptical of arguments from a lawyer for TikTok that forcing the sale was a violation of First Amendment free speech rights.
Bloomberg described Beijing’s view on Musk’s potential transaction as “still preliminary”, noting that Chinese officials still do not have a consensus on how to proceed.
It said it was unclear how much ByteDance knew about the Chinese government’s plan.
TikTok did not immediately respond to AFP’s request for comment, but Variety quoted a representative as saying: “We can’t be expected to comment on pure fiction.”
Musk is a close ally of Trump who is expected to play an influential role in Washington over the coming four years.
He also runs electric car company Tesla, which has a major factory in China and counts the country as one of the automaker’s biggest markets.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to impose new tariffs on Chinese goods, which would expand a trade war that began in his first term and which was largely sustained, and in some cases supplemented, by outgoing President Joe Biden. Had gone.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)