MrBeast, one of the most successful internet creators, may join a bid by real estate mogul and Project Liberty founder Frank McCourt to buy TikTok's U.S. arm, McCourt told Axios' Sara Fischer in Davos on Wednesday.

The billionaire declined to share details on his sources of financing, but said private equity firms and family offices have reached out.

Businessman Frank McCourt is "open-minded" to keeping TikTok's existing investors, including the founder, involved after any deal to buy the U.S. operations of the Chinese-owned short-form video app,

Billionaire Frank McCourt is vying to acquire TikTok's U.S. operations, contingent on maintaining control. Interest from private equity and family offices accompanies his bid. U.S. political backing and the Supreme Court's decision fuel the competitive landscape as bidders anticipate a $20 billion purchase without TikTok's algorithm.

Frank McCourt’s Project Liberty and other investors have submitted a bid to buy TikTok from China-based ByteDance after a court-ordered divestiture or shutdown.

Billionaire Frank McCourt says he is open to others joining his bid for U.S. TikTok, January 23, 2025. "If, as things evolve, there are other financial arrangements, we don't need to own 100 percent of TikTok.

After the bipartisan TikTok law was signed by former President Joe Biden in April, ByteDance said it did not have plans to sell the platform and fought the statute in court for months. China also rebuked Washington over the divestment push, though more recently it appears to be softening its stance.

The law gives the president the option to extend the ban by 90 days, but triggering the extension requires evidence that parties working on purchasing have made significant progress, including binding legal agreements for such a deal — and TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, hasn’t publicly updated its stance that the app is not for sale.

TikTok says it's "in the process" of restoring service to users in the United States after the popular video-sharing platform went dark in response to a new law.

TikTok will be banned in the US on 19 January - unless the Supreme Court accepts a last ditch legal bid from its Chinese owner, ByteDance, that to do so would be unconstitutional.

U.S. businessman Frank McCourt is open to teaming up with other buyers on a bid to take over the U.S. operations of TikTok as long as he can maintain control of the asset, he told Reuters at the Davos event on Thursday.

Three days after ByteDance's TikTok went dark and then was quickly revived in the United States, users who deleted the app were anxiously checking iPhone and Android devices to find it still unavailable to be downloaded again.