ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is required to sell the app to a U.S.-based buyer or face a nationwide ban.

After years of rejecting the idea of a sale of TikTok’s US assets to an American buyer in order to avert a ban, China and ByteDance may have found an owner they could live with: Elon Musk.

Newly inaugurated US President Donald Trump on Tuesday expressed support for Elon Musk potentially acquiring TikTok, and also proposed a

He previously floated a joint venture, saying that the US should be entitled to half of the app.

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would be supportive of the world's richest man and his close aide, Elon Musk, buying TikTok "if he wanted to". Trump was asked if he would be open to the billionaire founder of Tesla buying the short-video platform facing a nationwide ban in the US after the Supreme Court last week upheld a law requiring TikTok to sever ties with its Chinese parent ByteDance.

Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported that China was considering a TikTok sale to Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a close ally of President Trump, who already owns the social media platform X.

The app, which was set to be banned, now has a bit more time to find a home and address national security issues