Jimmy Donaldson, known popularly as YouTuber MrBeast, is part of a formidable group of investors aiming to acquire TikTok. This group, which includes Jesse Tinsley of Employer.com, Roblox co-founder and CEO David Baszucki, and Nathan McCauley of Anchorage Digital, has reportedly placed a bid of over $20 billion. They believe it will take approximately $25 billion to successfully purchase the social media giant.

Despite their efforts, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has stated that its U.S. operations are not on the market. The group led by Tinsley has yet to receive a direct response from ByteDance. Meanwhile, representatives for Donaldson have indicated that he is engaging with multiple parties and is open to joining the leading contender in the bidding process. On January 22, Donaldson expressed his enthusiasm on Twitter, saying, "The leading groups who are all credible bidding on TikTok have reached out for us to help them, I’m excited to partner/make this a reality. Big things cooking."

Earlier in the week, former U.S. President Donald Trump mentioned that Microsoft was in discussions to purchase TikTok, expressing his desire for a competitive bidding war. Microsoft, however, has not confirmed these discussions.

TikTok faced a significant disruption when it was taken offline for its 170 million U.S. users just before a law was set to take effect on January 19, which required ByteDance to sell the app due to national security concerns or face a ban. The app went dark after the Supreme Court rejected TikTok's First Amendment challenge. The justices recognized the commonality of data collection in the digital era but emphasized, "TikTok’s scale and susceptibility to foreign adversary control, together with the vast swaths of sensitive data the platform collects, justify differential treatment to address the Government’s national security concerns."

Following assurances from Trump, TikTok was able to restore its service. The company stated, "It’s a strong stand for the First Amendment and against arbitrary censorship. We will work with President Trump on a long-term solution that keeps TikTok in the United States."

Upon taking office on January 20, Trump signed an executive order to delay the enforcement of the law by 75 days. He has been in talks with various entities about a potential buyout of TikTok and has expressed openness to Elon Musk, the owner of X/Twitter, taking control.