A representative for TikTok has denied a report claiming that China was working on selling the app to Elon Musk to keep it operational in the United States. On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Chinese officials were “evaluating a potential option that involves Elon Musk acquiring the US operations of TikTok” and that the Chinese government had discussed the option of Musk’s social media app X taking “control of TikTok US” and running

Musk acquired X (then Twitter) in October 2022 after a highly publicized back and forth, in which he gave up on the acquisition midway but ultimately closed the deal, paying $44 billion for the platform. X's user base has been on a decline since the acquisition, and advertising revenues have plummeted.

The world’s richest person Elon Musk would likely be looking at a price tag similar to what he paid for Twitter if a deal materializes to buy the American operations of TikTok, according to one well-known analyst covering Musk--as China reportedly mulls allowing a sale to Musk to prevent an all-out U.