by The chairman of O’Leary Ventures has the latest on his TikTok bid for ‘The Claman Countdown.’
Artificial intelligence (AI) company Perplexity AI has made a bid to merge with TikTok US so the video-sharing platform can avoid being banned in the country, a report said.
The offer, made to the platform’s Chinese parent company ByteDance, would combine Perplexity AI, TikTok US and new equity partners and would allow most ByteDance investors to retain their equity stakes, CNBC reported, citing a source familiar with the matter. with the case.
Congress last year approved a ban on TikTok that will take effect on Sunday unless China’s ByteDance sells the company.
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TikTok is facing a ban in the US, which takes effect on Sunday. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis / AP Newsroom)
The White House has said President Biden will not enforce the ban, and President-elect Trump said he would likely call for a 90-day delay on the ban, which is allowed by law.
Still, ByteDance said Saturday it planned to “go dark” on Sunday unless the Biden administration provides “definitive” assurance that the ban will not be enforced.
Perplexity is an AI search engine startup that launched last year. It is worth about $9 billion, CNBC reported.
Perplexity is an AI search engine startup that launched last year. It is worth about $9 billion, CNBC reported. (Jaque Silva/NurPhoto via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the bipartisan law, citing national security risks due to ties to China.
Although ByteDance has suggested it would not sell TikTok, “Shark Tank” investor Kevin O’Leary told Fox News on Friday that he has made a $20 billion cash offer for it.
President-elect Trump said he would likely call for a 90-day delay on the ban, which is allowed under law. (Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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“There’s a reason Congress referred this order to the Supreme Court. There’s a reason they ruled in favor of it. It’s not worth taking the risk,” he said. “And so the obvious solution is to sell it to an American syndicate as ordered.”
FOX Business has reached out to Bytedance and Perplexity AI for comment.
