China is considering selling TikTok to Musk as the deadline for a sale or ban in the US approaches

As a staunch ally of Donald Trump, Elon Musk may prove crucial to TikTok’s survival: He has rejected the American banand has a history of doing business in China through its electric car company, Tesla. However, the world’s richest man may be constrained by budget: Musk is still paying off his Twitter purchase, and TikTok would present an estimated additional expense of between $40-$50 billion, Bloomberg noted. Another consideration for Musk is the fact that American TikTokers are already migrating to other apps, including the Chinese rival Xiaohongshuwhich on Monday was the most downloaded app on Apple’s US App Store, the BBC reported. However, combining TikTok’s US operations with Musk’s X platform could boost the latter’s ad sales, and its vast library of content would help bolster his AI ambitions.