Amazon bids to buy TikTok as deadline looms, US administration official says

Amazon.com has put in a last-minute bid to buy TikTok, a U.S. administration official said on Wednesday, just days ahead of an April 5 deadline for the short-form video app to find a non-Chinese buyer or face a ban in the country.

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to discuss TikTok’s fate at an Oval Office meeting on Wednesday and consider a final proposal related to the app, a White House official told Reuters on Tuesday.

Amazon declined to comment, while TikTok and its parent company ByteDance did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Shares of Amazon rose 1.3% in a volume spike after the report.

The US tech and ecommerce giant is the latest name to pop up in a list of reported buyers. Trump said last month that his administration was in touch with four different groups about the sale of the platform, without identifying them.

Private equity firm Blackstone is discussing joining ByteDance’s existing non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, in contributing fresh capital to bid for TikTok’s U.S. business, Reuters reported last week.

U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is also in talks to add new outside investment that will buyout TikTok’s Chinese investors, as part of a bid led by Oracle and other American investors to carve it out of ByteDance, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

White House-led talks entail plans to spin off a U.S. entity for TikTok and dilute Chinese ownership in the new business to below a 20% threshold required by U.S. law, Reuters reported last month. The New York Times first reported Amazon’s involvement on Wednesday. Various parties who have been involved in the talks do not appear to be taking Amazon’s bid seriously, the report said. The bid came via an offer letter addressed to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, it added.

The future of the app used by nearly half of all Americans has been up in the air since a 2024 law, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, required ByteDance to divest TikTok by January 19.

Washington says TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance makes it beholden to the Chinese government, and Beijing could use the app to conduct influence operations against the United States and collect data on Americans.

Amazon has also dabbled in the social media space with its own TikTok-like short-form video and photo feed called Inspire, which was previously available within its mobile app. Last month, several media reports said Amazon had shut down Inspire.