The world’s richest man Elon Musk is heading towards getting the ownership of the US business of TikTok, the popular Chinese short-video app. Even as in the US TikTok is contesting a ban by appealing to the Supreme Court, China is assessing an option which could result in Tesla boss Elon Musk acquiring the operations of TikTok in the US, said a recent report.
The parent company of TikTok, ByteDance faces the onerous task of choosing between selling off the TikTok operations in the US or suffer a complete ban in that country altogether due to security concerns, and it has to make the choice by January 19, 2025. TikTok has more than 17 crore users in the US which accounts for 50% of the country’s population.
Concern over “golden share” in ByteDance
The government in Beijing enjoys what is known as “golden share” in ByteDance. According to some Congress members in the US, this golden share gives it power over Tiktok. However, TikTok has asserted that the stake that the Chinese government enjoys “has no bearing on ByteDance’s global operations outside of China, including TikTok”.
A recent Bloomberg report said on January 10 there during a hearing in the courts, the bench signalled that they are keen to go by the law while it also became apparent that China wants ByteDance to retain ownership of ByteDance. The news report also stated that senior Chinese officials have engaged into discussions on how to keep TikTok alive during the rule of Donald Trump’s administration in which Elon Musk is a prominent face.
The looming presence of Elon Musk
According to the report, one of the few scenarios being discussed involves Elon Musk, who is also extremely close to Donald Trump, taking over the reins of TikTok US and run its together with X (formerly Twitter). Elon Musk took control of Twitter in 2023 and repositioned it as X. There are other indications too. In April 2024, the Tesla CEO said mentioned that TikTok should continue to be available in the US. Musk wrote on X: “In my opinion, TikTok should not be banned in the USA, even though such a ban may benefit the X platform. Doing so would be contrary to freedom of speech and expression. It is not what America stands for.” However the news report also stated that deliberations are continuing and any firm decision is yet to be reached by the Chinese officials. According to reports, Musk’s net worth stood at around $426 billion in January 2025.
Launched in September 2016, the Chinese app for short videos TikTok gained immense popularity quickly. Recent reports have stated that the world’s richest person Elon Musk could become the owner of the US operation of this app. Biz News Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
