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Amazon (AMZN-8.08%) is making an under-the-wire bid to acquire popular social media app TikTok, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing three people familiar with the matter.
Amazon stock was up more than 3% in midday trading in response to the news.
TikTok’s parent company, Chinese-owned ByteDance, faces a deadline on Saturday to either sell TikTok to an American entity or have the app banned in the United States.
National security concerns over the app’s ownership reign supreme on both sides of the aisle in Washington, prompting lawmakers to pass a law late last year that restricts no more than 20 percent of app ownership to people or companies in “foreign adversary” countries like China. The law was supposed to go into effect in January but President Donald Trump delayed it to this upcoming Saturday, April 5th.
The bid, which came via an offer letter to vice President JD Vance and commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, is reportedly not being taken seriously by parties involved in the talks, New York Times (NYT-2.15%) said.
Trump is reportedly set to meet with White House officials on Wednesday to discuss proposals on the app’s new ownership structure, and whether or not another deadline extension is warranted.
There are other bids on the table for TikTok.
“We have a lot of potential buyers,” Trump told reporters on Sunday, adding that he would “like to see TikTok remain alive.”
One of the front-runner proposals reportedly includes bringing on a number of American investors, including private equity firms Blackstone, General Atlantic and investment firm Susquehanna International Group to join ByteDance.
Another reported favorite is a deal that would see software company Oracle (ORCL-4.94%) overseeing the data of American TikTok users, Politico reported earlier last month, while ByteDance retains a role in operations. TikTok already partners with Oracle to use the company’s cloud infrastructure in the U.S.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, co-led by Trump ally Marc Andreessen, also is reportedly in talks to be an outside investor as part of the Oracle deal.
While Amazon has benefited from TikTok content creators who direct users to shop via Amazon Storefronts, the two apps increasingly have become rivals in the past year following the meteoric rise in popularity of TikTok’s in-app shopping experience TikTok Shop.
Amazon tried to replicate TikTok’s success with an in-app TikTok-style short form video and photo feed called Inspire, which ended up largely unsuccessful and was shut down for good in February 2025.
China rejects any forced sale of the company, and might get final say in the deal due to its tech export laws. Last week, Trump told reporters that he could give China “a little reduction in tariffs or something” to get them to sign off on the deal. The President is set to announce new wave of tariffs later on Wednesday.