U.S. President Donald Trump has hinted that Microsoft is in discussions to acquire TikTok, expressing his preference for a bidding war over the app.
When asked if Microsoft was negotiating to purchase TikTok, the President responded, “I would say yes,” and added, “There’s a lot of interest in TikTok. There’s great interest in TikTok.”
Microsoft, TikTok, and its parent company ByteDance have not yet commented on the matter following Trump’s remarks aboard Air Force One on Monday.
This marks the second time Microsoft has been linked to a potential TikTok acquisition. During Trump’s first term, he ordered TikTok’s US operations to separate from ByteDance over national security concerns. Microsoft emerged as a leading bidder in 2020, but talks ultimately fell through, and the divestment effort ended when Trump left office.
The app, which boasts approximately 170 million US users, recently faced a temporary outage as the deadline for ByteDance to divest or face a ban approached on January 19. Trump extended the deadline by 75 days through an executive order after returning to office on January 20.
The President has also suggested that billionaire Elon Musk could be a potential buyer, though Musk has not commented publicly on the proposal.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, AI startup Perplexity AI reportedly proposed merging with TikTok, offering the US government up to half the new entity in the future, according to a source cited by Reuters.
Reflecting on the 2020 negotiations, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella described the TikTok talks as “the strangest thing I’ve ever worked on,” noting that the government’s demands ultimately evaporated.
The Guardian contributed to this article.
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