TikTok Dismisses Reports of Potential Sale to Elon Musk as “Pure Fiction”

TikTok has rejected reports claiming that the Chinese government is considering allowing the sale of the platform to Elon Musk to ensure its continued operation in the United States, calling the speculation “pure fiction.”

Bloomberg News and The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Chinese officials have debated the possibility of selling TikTok’s U.S. operations to the Tesla and SpaceX CEO to avoid a ban. The ban is set to take effect on Sunday unless ByteDance, TikTok’s China-based owner, divests its U.S. operations.

While Beijing officials reportedly “strongly prefer” that TikTok remain under ByteDance’s control, they have begun discussing “contingency plans,” according to Bloomberg. However, Beijing has not shared these plans with ByteDance, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the discussions.

One potential scenario under consideration, according to Bloomberg, involves TikTok merging with Musk’s social media platform, X. However, it remains unclear how Musk, whose estimated net worth exceeds $400 billion, would execute the transaction or whether he would need to liquidate assets to fund the purchase.

A TikTok spokesperson dismissed the rumors, stating, “We can’t and won’t comment on something purely fictitious.”

Bloomberg