Donald Trump is preparing to consider a final proposal to decide the future of TikTok before a deadline for the app to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban.
The US vice-president, JD Vance, the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, the national security adviser, Mike Waltz, and the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, will meet in the Oval Office on Wednesday to discuss the issue, Reuters reported.
In the closely watched sale of TikTok, the White House is playing the role of an investment bank, with Vance running the auction.
The private equity firm Blackstone is discussing joining ByteDance’s existing non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, in contributing fresh capital to bid for TikTok’s US business, Reuters reported last week.
On Sunday, Trump said a deal with ByteDance to sell the short video app used by 170 million Americans would be struck before Saturday’s deadline.
Trump is preparing to announce global tariffs on what he has called ‘liberation day’ on Wednesday. Last week, he said he would be willing to reduce tariffs on China to get a TikTok deal done.
Trump set the deadline in January for TikTok to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a US ban on national security grounds due to have taken effect that month under a 2024 law.
The US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is in discussions to invest in TikTok as part of an effort led by Trump to gain control of the app, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
The Silicon Valley Trump supporter and Andreessen Horowitz’s co-founder, Marc Andreessen, is in talks to add new outside investment that will buy out TikTok’s Chinese investors, as part of a bid led by Oracle and other American investors to carve it out of its parent company, ByteDance, according to the FT.
Blackstone is reportedly evaluating making a small minority investment in TikTok’s US operations.
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The talks on the future of TikTok are coalescing around a plan for the biggest non-Chinese investors in ByteDance to raise their stakes and acquire the short-video app’s US operations, Reuters reported last month.
Trump said last month his administration was in touch with four different groups about a prospective TikTok deal, without identifying them.
TikTok and Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
