The world’s richest YouTuber teams up with tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley to make a bid as President Trump says he’s open to Elon Musk or Larry Ellison buying TikTok
The world’s richest YouTuber MrBeast has officially joined the race to buy TikTok in the US.
The 26-year-old content creator, nicknamed “King of YouTube “, has teamed up with tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley, founder of online staffing firm employer.com, to make an all-cash offer to buy TikTok’s US operations.
The offer was announced as President Donald Trump said he was willing to let US tech billionaires Elon Musk and Larry Ellison buy TikTok in the US if they wanted.
MrBeast – whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson – has expressed interest in acquiring TikTok in several social media posts. On January 13, the “YouTube King” wrote on X: “I would buy TikTok so that this platform would not be banned.”
In a later TikTok post, MrBeast said he had spoken to “a bunch of billionaires” about bidding.
Law firm Paul Hastings announced MrBeast’s offer in a statement on January 21. The firm said Tinsley is leading a group of investors that includes “institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals,” but MrBeast is the only publicly named member of the group.
The statement did not disclose the size of the cash bid, although US President Donald Trump put a $1 trillion price tag on the app on January 21.
According to Forbes, MrBeast – a YouTube star with 346 million followers on the platform, was the world’s most successful Internet content creator last year, earning $85 million.
Paul Hastings said the lawyer leading the team advising on the bid was Brad Bondi, the brother of Pam Bondi, who was chosen by Mr. Trump to be the US Attorney General.
US President Donald Trump also raised the possibility of a deal with billionaire Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, or billionaire Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle and the world’s fourth richest person.
At a press conference on January 21, Mr. Trump said he was willing to let ElonMusk make an offer “if he wanted.”
In addition, the US leader said he also left open the possibility of another tech giant buying TikTok: Larry Ellison.
Ellison said at the press conference that it sounded like a “good deal.” Trump said TikTok was worth $1,000 million for a “license” to operate in the United States, with 50% American ownership.
TikTok’s future in the US remains uncertain, although the app was relaunched on January 19 after its Beijing-based parent company, ByteDance , briefly shut down the service.
TikTok has until January 19 to have its Chinese parent company sell the app in the US or face a ban.
However, the company restored the app after receiving “assurances” from Mr Trump, who then issued an executive order suspending enforcement of the law requiring the sale of TikTok.
The law prohibits companies like Apple, Google or Oracle from distributing or maintaining the TikTok app — essentially preventing it from operating — if ByteDance hasn’t completed the sale by January 19.
