Beijing is reportedly considering selling TikTok’s American operations to Elon Musk before Washington’s deadline on Sunday for the app’s Chinese owners to divest from the company or face a ban.
According to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal, the proposal is part of a broader debate among Chinese officials over how to deal with the new administration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has ties to Musk – an ally of Trump but also a billionaire somewhat dependent on him. China given that Tesla has production facilities in the country – among the factors.
Combining TikTok’s U.S. operations with Musk’s social media platform X could boost the latter’s ad sales, and the video-sharing platform’s wealth of content could also boost its AI efforts.
