Amazon Makes a Late Bid for TikTok Amid Sale Deadline

TikTok's fate in the U.S. is hanging by a thread, with a crucial deadline fast approaching. The app, with its 170 million American users, must either be sold to a U.S.-based company or face a potential ban—possibly as soon as this week. And just as the clock winds down, Amazon has reportedly stepped in with a surprise bid.


According to The New York Times, Amazon has reached out to the Trump administration with an offer to acquire TikTok, seemingly eyeing its e-commerce potential. The move makes sense—Amazon has been trying to integrate social commerce for years, even launching its own TikTok-style shopping feed in 2022. If it manages to acquire the app, it could use it as a massive new marketplace, leveraging its viral power to push products and boost sales. Walmart had a similar idea when it joined a bid for TikTok back in 2020, hoping to capitalize on its in-app shopping potential.

While TikTok's Western audience has been slower to embrace shopping through the app, its Chinese counterpart, Douyin, raked in nearly $500 million in product sales last year. That means there's real money to be made—just not yet at full scale in the U.S. But Amazon could change that, using TikTok as a new frontier for online shopping.

The problem? No one seems to be taking Amazon's offer seriously. Reports suggest that those involved in the negotiations don't see Amazon as a real contender. The bid came in the form of an offer letter addressed to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, but it appears to be more of a last-minute Hail Mary than a carefully structured deal.

So who's actually in the race? Oracle remains the front-runner, thanks to its ties to Trump (CEO Larry Ellison is a known ally) and its existing relationship with TikTok, as it already handles the app's U.S. infrastructure. Whether the Chinese government will approve a sale remains an open question, as does the complex legal landscape surrounding the Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act.

With Trump meeting top officials to discuss the deal, we might get an answer soon—unless, of course, the deadline gets extended again.

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