Amazon Places Last-Minute Bid to Purchase TikTok as Possible Ban Looms

As Donald Trump announced “final proposals” on Wednesday to save TikTok in the United States, Amazon has placed a surprise bid to purchase the embattled app.

The tech giant made the offer in a letter addressed to JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, an anonymous Trump administration official confirmed to AP News. This move comes as a U.S. ban on TikTok is set to go into effect on Saturday.

Trump had granted TikTok a reprieve on Inauguration Day, bypassing a Supreme Court-backed law that deemed a ban necessary for national security. Under this law, TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is required to either sell the app to an approved buyer or take it offline in U.S. app stores. While Trump hinted at potentially extending the ban pause, he expects a deal to be reached by Saturday.

Amazon’s bid surfaced as Trump prepared to meet with senior officials to discuss the looming deadline for a TikTok sale. Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have raised concerns about TikTok sharing user data with China’s government, a claim the app denies. Despite these security concerns, the video-sharing platform has stated it would never comply if asked to provide such data.

During his first term, Trump took a skeptical stance toward TikTok, even issuing executive orders to ban business dealings with ByteDance and WeChat’s owners.

At the time of this writing, no deal has been reached.