President Donald Trump said Tuesday that billionaire Elon Musk is open to buying social media app TikTok if Tesla's CEO wants it.
“If he wanted to buy it, I would,” Trump told reporters.
President Trump signed an executive order on Monday giving Chinese-owned apps a 75-day reprieve from a sales ban that went into effect on Sunday.
President Trump said, “I've met with TikTok's owners and major shareholders, but if we don't get permission, it's worthless.'' “It's worth something like a trillion dollars. So what I'm trying to say to somebody is, 'If you buy this and give half of it to the United States, we'll give you permission, and they'll be a great partner. ”.
Musk had previously been floated by officials as a potential buyer because of his close ties to China.
President Trump made the comments as he announced a $500 billion AI infrastructure project involving Oracle, SoftBank and OpenAI, led by Musk's nemesis Sam Altman.
The president also said he was open to an acquisition of the app by Oracle's billionaire co-founder Larry Ellison.
