TikTok is yet to find a new owner and the bidders are already lining up! World’s biggest short video content platform TikTok is working on a deadline to find a new buyer for itself to continue its operations in the US. Perplexity AI has thrown its hat into the bag too! It has offered to buy a 50% stake in TikTok offering the remaining 50% stake to the US government. With several big names like Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, Oracle, Microsoft, and more showing interest in buying TikTok, Perplexity AI has raised several eyebrows with its offer!
What’s the TikTok-US Govt Issue?
It all started when the US government raised security concerns over potential data access of TikTok’s users by the Chinese government. TikTok, owned by China’s Byte Dance is the most popular video platform that caters to over 170 million US users. As per the legislation that was passed by the government, Bytedance has to disinvest from TikTok by Jan 19, 2025, to continue its operations in the US. But the new US president Donald Trump has extended that deadline by another 75 days to allow Bytedance to find suitable buyers for its stake in the company.
Also Read: Perplexity AI Mobile Assistant – The Master AI App We All Need
What’s Perplexity AI?
Perplexity AI is a San Francisco-based Gen AI-powered search engine. It was founded in August 2022 by Aravind Srinivas, Andy Konwinski, Denis Yarats, and Johnny Ho. Its conversational search engine utilizes large language models like GPT-3.5, Claude Sonnet, and more to provide real-time answers to user queries, citing sources within its responses.
As of December 2024, Perplexity AI secured a $500 million funding round, elevating its valuation to $9 billion. The list of investors of Perplexity AI includes Jeff Bezos, Nvidia, and SoftBank.
What’s Perplexity AI’s Proposal?
Perplexity AI has proposed a merger with TikTok’s U.S. operations, hoping to create a new entity where the U.S. government can have up to a 50% stake following an initial public offering or IPO valued at a minimum of $300 billion. This proposal aims to address national security concerns by excluding TikTok’s core recommendation algorithm, the right to which would still be with ByteDance. The Chinese enterprise would sell TikTok U.S. to investors, providing existing TikTok investors with equity in the new company. The holding company could also acquire Perplexity AI if its investors receive equity in the new entity
Currently, TikTok offers various generative AI tools to its users. With Perplexity taking over its operations in the US, we may see more interesting Gen AI-powered tools lining up. Together “TikTok + Perplexity AI” can be the next big thing in the social media space!
Also Read: Perplexity Sonar API: Reliable, Scalable, and Developer-Friendly
End Note
Perplexity AI has top investors backing its operations and with its offer, the US government can find its voice in the operations of the US entity of “TikTok” providing a win-win situation across the board. While Bytedance has received interest from several leaders across the US tech leaders as well as social media influencers like Mr. Beast, it has yet to make a statement about its decision. Only time will tell whether Perplexity AI will get the chance to buy TikTok or not.
Stay tuned for more updates on Analytics Vidhya News!
Anu Madan has 5+ years of experience in content creation and management. Having worked as a content creator, reviewer, and manager, she has created several courses and blogs. Currently, she working on creating and strategizing the content curation and design around Generative AI and other upcoming technology.
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