Donald Trump confirms Microsoft in talks to buy TikTok, teases potential bidding war

US President Donald Trump has confirmed that Microsoft is in talks to acquire TikTok in the US. Without going into much detail, Trump said that there will be a ‘bidding war’ for the future of short video app and categorically stated that ‘China won’t be involved’.

While confirming that Microsoft is in talks to buy US arm of TikTok, Trump said, “I would say yes… A lot of interest in TikTok. There’s great interest in TikTok.”

In a video on TikTok, Trump said a lot of bids are coming for TikTok, writing, “We’ll see what happens. We’re going to have a lot of people bidding on it, and if we can save all that voice and all the jobs, and China won’t be involved, we don’t want China involved, but we’ll see what happens,”

“I like bidding wars because you make your best deal. So if there’s a bidding war, that’s a good thing,” the US President added.\

Trump has previously said that he is in talks with various people about buying TikTok, and that a decision on the app's future will be made in 30 days.

An NPR report last week claimed that the Trump administration was working on a plan to use Oracle and a group of outside investors, including Microsoft, to take control of the short-video app.

However, during a media briefing on Sunday, Trump strongly denied the report, saying he had not had a conversation with Oracle CEO Larry Ellison about the matter.

Donald Trump's love-hate relationship with TikTok:

Shortly after being sworn in as the 47th US president, Trump signed an executive order giving TikTok an additional 75 days to comply with a federal law requiring the company to cut ties with its Chinese parent company ByteDance or face a ban in the US.

Notably, Trump himself first attempted to ban TikTok via executive order, citing national security concerns with the Chinese app. Since then, however, the Republican leader has developed a "warm spot" for the app as it helped him connect with young voters during the 2024 US election.