A rich Wyoming entrepreneur has made a suggestion to purchase TikTok for almost $50 billion, The Submit can reveal.
Reid Rasner, 40, who has based a number of companies within the state and at present heads up a media firm, is looking for “a controlling stake” in TikTok’s property, operations and proprietary algorithm for $47.45 billion, in response to a replica of a Tuesday letter obtained by The Submit that Rasner’s lawyer despatched to the app’s Chinese language mum or dad firm ByteDance.
“By establishing TikTok’s operations in Wyoming, Reid will ignite a new era of economic diversification, creating thousands of high-paying jobs that will not only benefit the tech sector but also supercharge Wyoming’s energy, agriculture, and tourism industries,” the letter from Rasner Media counsel Steve Roberts states.
“This initiative will bring high-skilled workers, cutting-edge innovation, and new investment opportunities into the state, strengthening the economy while ensuring Wyoming remains a national leader in multiple sectors.”
President Trump had pledged to “save TikTok” earlier than taking workplace and signed an govt order on Day One granting a 75-day reprieve from a legislation signed by former President Joe Biden that mandated the certified divestment of the app from its Chinese language mum or dad firm.
“I met with the owners of TikTok, the big owners, it’s worthless if it doesn’t get a permit,” he informed reporters on the White Home in January throughout a $500 billion AI infrastructure mission announcement involving Oracle, Softbank and OpenAI.
“It’s worth like a trillion dollars,” the president added. “So what I’m thinking about saying to somebody is, ‘Buy it and give half to the United States of America, and we’ll give you the permit,’ and they’ll have a great partner.”
Trump has additionally signaled his help for the US assuming a greater than 50% possession stake within the app.
Nationwide safety hawks have lengthy warned that the Chinese language Communist Occasion has the aptitude to acquire troves of information on the greater than 170 million TikTok customers within the US, together with searching histories, biometric identifiers and site information.
Trump himself additionally acknowledged the “threat,” whilst he sought to delay TikTok’s divestment from ByteDance earlier than taking workplace.
Billionaire Larry Ellison had been floated as a possible purchaser earlier this 12 months for the social media app.
Ellison’s firm Oracle, which is predicated in Austin, Texas, already serves as a cloud computing companion for TikTok.
Others rumored to have curiosity embrace Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk in addition to billionaire Frank McCourt and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary, who’ve mentioned they’ve $20 billion in commitments as a part of a plan to purchase the TikTok model and rebuild its algorithm from scratch on US soil.
Rasner has based each wealth administration and glass firms in Wyoming — and challenged Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) within the state’s 2024 Republican major final 12 months.
His supply letter touted the Cowboy State’s “abundance of clean, low-cost energy sources” wanted “to power TikTok.”
“While traditional tech hubs struggle with skyrocketing energy prices and unreliable grids, Wyoming offers unmatched energy stability, efficiency, and sustainability,” the letter says.
The founding father of Omnivest Monetary and former proprietor of Wyoming Glass additionally mentioned his agency was able to “enter into comprehensive non-disclosure agreements and conduct due diligence over a six-month period, with an eye toward providing a letter of intent for a controlling stake in the U.S. [sic] assets at the conclusion of that period.”
Reps for TikTok didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
