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As the clock winds down on the TikTok video app’s potential ban in the United States, last minute investors such as Amazon, are submitting bids.

TikTok went dark in the United States on Jan. 18 after the Supreme Court upheld the law to ban the app unless its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, sold its U.S. operations. However, the blackout it was short-lived.

The video-sharing giant restored service less than a day later, on Jan. 19, after then-President-elect Donald Trump vowed to pause the ban by executive order the next day.

As promised, the next day, he did indeed delay the ban on TikTok for an additional 75 days, which he said at the time, would allow him time to consult with his advisors and heads of “relevant” departments and agencies to address national security concerns posed by TikTok.

Trump is reportedly meeting with aides on Wednesday about possible investors that may be interested in buying TikTok’s U.S. operations before the app shuts down for the 170 million users across the country this weekend.

“We have a lot of potential buyers, there’s tremendous interest in TikTok. The decision is going to be my decision,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One Sunday. “I’d like to see TikTok remain alive.”

According to the New York Times, Amazon has put in a last minute bid to acquire TikTok via an offer letter addressed to JD Vance and Howard Lutnick, the Commerce secretary, ahead of Trump’s Wednesday meeting.

Another last-minute bid was reportedly made by a startup run by OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely who has partnered with a cryptocurrency foundation to make the offer on TikTok, according to Reuters.

Some other potential buyers have made offers in the past several months, such as software company Oracle, artificial intelligence engine Perplexity, Jesse Tinsley and Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast), and Shark Tank host Kevin O’Leary and Frank McCourt. None of which were accepted to date.

Other names that have since been floated, included billionaire Elon Musk, Microsoft and even Treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin and Rumble. None of these has actually materialized to date.

According to CBS News, a plan involving US investors that may include Oracle and the private equity firm Blackstone could also be under consideration on Wednesday.

Why is TikTok being banned?

Congress passed a law last year forcing ByteDance to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations or face a nationwide ban. Lawmakers argued that ByteDance’s ties to China pose a national security risk if user data is shared with the Chinese government.

After months of legal challenges, the Supreme Court ruled on Jan. 17, 2025 that the law is constitutional, rejecting ByteDance’s argument that the ban violates free speech rights. The decision cleared the way for the ban to take effect on Jan. 19, 2025 unless TikTok was sold before then.

After a short outage on Jan. 18, TikTok service was restored under a 75-day extension, set to expire and shut down on April 5 if a new buyer for the U.S. operations is not found.

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