President Donald Trump mentioned on Tuesday he was open to billionaire Elon Musk shopping for social media app TikTok — if the Tesla CEO needed to take action.
“I would be, if he wanted to buy it,” Trump instructed reporters.
Trump signed an government order on Monday that provides the Chinese language-owned app a 75-day reprieve from the sell-or-ban legislation that went into impact Sunday.
“I met with the owners of Tiktok, the big owners, it’s worthless if it doesn’t get a permit,” Trump mentioned. “It’s worth like a trillion dollars. 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.”
Musk’s identify has beforehand been floated by officers as a potential purchaser due to the mogul’s shut ties to China.
Trump made the feedback whereas asserting a $500 billion AI infrastructure venture involving Oracle, Softbank and OpenAI, led by Musk nemesis Sam Altman.
The president additionally mentioned he could be open to the app being purchased by Larry Ellison, Oracle’s billionaire co-founder.
