“Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned,” MrBeast posted on X on January 13. Turns out, he wasn’t kidding. Jimmy Donaldson, better known to his 347 million YouTube subscribers as MrBeast, has officially joined a bid to acquire TikTok’s U.S. operations.
Days after his initial X post, Donaldson shared a TikTok video again teasing his interest in acquiring TikTok. “I just got out of a meeting with a bunch of billionaires,” he said. “TikTok, we mean business.”
True to his word, MrBeast has indeed teamed up with Employer.com CEO Jesse Tinsley and other investors, submitting an all-cash bid for TikTok, according to a report in Bloomberg.
The U.S. law firm Paul Hastings confirmed MrBeast’s TikTok bid in a statement on Tuesday, revealing that Tinsley is spearheading the investor group. The group reportedly includes “institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals” with MrBeast being the only publicly named member.
The statement didn’t disclose the size of the all-cash bid, though President Donald Trump estimated TikTok’s value at $1 trillion on the same day. Forbes previously named Donaldson the world’s highest-earning internet creator of 2023, with a staggering $85 million in earnings.
It remains unclear whether ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, is seriously considering the offer, Bloomberg reported. Meanwhile, other big names like Elon Musk, Oracle, and billionaire Frank McCourt are also rumored to be potential buyers.
TikTok briefly went dark on Saturday. Less than 24 hours later it was back. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday allowing the app to continue U.S. operations—for now. The move delays any potential ban for 75 days but doesn’t offer a permanent solution.
ByteDance again faces two options: Sell the U.S. operations to a buyer or hope for an improbable legislative reversal. For TikTok, the clock is ticking once again.