Amazon has entered the race to acquire TikTok, the popular video-sharing app owned by China’s ByteDance.
According to The New York Times and Barron’s, Amazon submitted a letter of intent to Vice President of the United States J.D. Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, signaling its interest in the deal.
As this Saturday marks the deadline for a potential U.S. ban on TikTok, the competition to acquire the app is heating up.
The list of contenders is notable, including Blackstone—the world’s largest hedge fund—software giant Oracle, several private equity firms, venture capitalists, and major tech industry players.
Despite having about 170 million U.S. users, TikTok has remained under constant threat since the first Trump administration.
During his first term, Trump pushed to ban TikTok, arguing that storing U.S. user data on servers owned by Chinese parent company ByteDance posed a national security risk.
Ironically, the TikTok ban was signed into law under former President Joe Biden’s administration, which had frequently clashed with Trump.
Congress passed a bill banning TikTok in the U.S. unless ByteDance divested its stake, and Biden signed it into law.
After legal efforts to delay the deadline failed, TikTok experienced a brief 12-hour outage on January 18.
However, with Trump stepping in, TikTok has been placed on life support.
The former Biden administration temporarily allowed TikTok to continue operating while Trump, who had promised to resolve the issue, could make the final decision. After taking office on January 20, Trump issued an executive order granting a 75-day grace period, which is set to expire this Saturday.
The move was widely seen as a clear signal for TikTok to secure new ownership within the allotted timeframe.
While no sale has gone through, Trump has hinted at possibly extending the deadline.
With Amazon joining the race, competition to acquire TikTok has intensified, making a deadline extension all but certain.
Meanwhile, some analysts say that if Amazon acquires TikTok, it could target younger consumers who shop through social media.
