MrBeast, the internet’s highest-earning content creator, is bidding for TikTok
On January 13, MrBeast — YouTube’s most successful purveyor of clickbait videos like “Ages 1 - 100 Fight For $500,000” — joked in a post on X that he’d buy TikTok to save it from getting banned.
But now he’s serious.
On Tuesday, CNN reported that the online star, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, was part of an American group of investors assembled by Employer.com founder and CEO Jesse Tinsley. The consortium, made up of “institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals,” has submitted an all-cash bid, a spokesperson for the group said.
The involvement of an internet celebrity is the latest addition to the mix of interested buyers for the video app after the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a law banning TikTok unless its US assets are sold to an American entity. After temporarily going dark over the weekend, the deadline for sale-or-ban was extended by 75 days following an executive order signed by President Trump.
Amazon and Oracle, both of which already provide services to TikTok, are being floated as other possible suitors for its US assets, which could be worth as much as $40 billion to $50 billion, per one analyst.
“Shark Tank”’s Kevin O’Leary, also involved in a $20 billion bid, said in a recent interview that the “Supreme Court order does not allow for the use of the algorithm,” which suggests that any buyer would need to rebuild much of TikTok’s tech stack and infrastructure, including its vaunted recommendation algorithm.
On Tuesday, CNN reported that the online star, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, was part of an American group of investors assembled by Employer.com founder and CEO Jesse Tinsley. The consortium, made up of “institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals,” has submitted an all-cash bid, a spokesperson for the group said.
The involvement of an internet celebrity is the latest addition to the mix of interested buyers for the video app after the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a law banning TikTok unless its US assets are sold to an American entity. After temporarily going dark over the weekend, the deadline for sale-or-ban was extended by 75 days following an executive order signed by President Trump.
Amazon and Oracle, both of which already provide services to TikTok, are being floated as other possible suitors for its US assets, which could be worth as much as $40 billion to $50 billion, per one analyst.
“Shark Tank”’s Kevin O’Leary, also involved in a $20 billion bid, said in a recent interview that the “Supreme Court order does not allow for the use of the algorithm,” which suggests that any buyer would need to rebuild much of TikTok’s tech stack and infrastructure, including its vaunted recommendation algorithm.
