MrBeast Joins Investor Group in Bid to Buy TikTok

Social media star MrBeast wants to purchase the platform that helped make him famous.

The creator, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has joined with a group of investors to purchase TikTok as that video-sharing platform faces a ban in the U.S., according to multiple published reports Tuesday (Jan. 21).

TikTok owner ByteDance has less than 75 days to find a new owner for the site or it could be permanently outlawed. The ban had initially gone into effect — albeit briefly — on Jan. 19, though President Donald Trump extended the deadline upon taking office.

Last week, Donaldson — TikTok’s third most popular figure and the number one creator on YouTube — posted this message as MrBeast on X: “Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned.”

As a CNN report notes, the tone may have seemed humorous but Donaldson’s attorney says he was serious. Two days after the X post, MrBeast put up a video on TikTok:

“I just got out of a meeting with a bunch of billionaires. TikTok we mean business,” he said. “This is my lawyer right here, we have an offer ready for you, we want to buy the platform.”

The ban stems from a law passed last year requiring ByteDance to divest the platform, legislation born out of national security concerns due to ByteDance’s Chinese ownership. The ban went into effect Sunday for a few hours before the company restored service.

That was prompted by Trump posting on Truth Social that he would pen an executive order extending the ban deadline, and promising companies that prevented TikTok from shutting down that they wouldn’t face liabilities.

The president also said he wants the U.S. to have a 50% stake in a joint ownership of TikTok, though it’s not clear how that agreement would be structured.

TikTok thanked Trump for offering “the necessary clarity” and said it would collaborate with the new administration on a solution to keep its app in the U.S. The Chinese government has also said it would be open to a deal to keep TikTok running.

Meanwhile, other bidders appear to have emerged to keep TikTok going. The weekend brought reports that search engine startup Perplexity AI hopes to merge with TikTok and has submitted a bid to ByteDance. According to a report by Reuters, the deal would see Perplexity merge with TikTok U.S. to form a new entity by joining the merged company with New Capital Partners.