Amazon has made a last-minute offer to acquire TikTok in the U.S. just days before a federal deadline that could force the app to shut down if it remains under Chinese ownership.
The bid was confirmed by three sources familiar with the talks and was sent in an official letter to Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
The offer arrives as Washington ramps up pressure on TikTok to separate from its parent company, ByteDance, amid escalating national security concerns. Lawmakers passed legislation last year mandating the app be divested or face an effective ban in the U.S. starting this Saturday.
Despite the urgency, insiders say the Amazon bid is not being taken seriously by key parties involved in the ongoing negotiations. TikTok has not publicly responded, and there are no reports of formal talks between Amazon and ByteDance. Still, Amazon’s entry adds to the late-stage chaos surrounding the future of the platform, which counts over 170 million U.S. users.
The Biden administration, Trump-era national security policies, and bipartisan lawmakers have all flagged TikTok as a data privacy and surveillance risk due to its ties to Beijing. The app’s ownership has been under scrutiny for years, with the Trump administration first moving to restrict it back in 2020. That policy has been revived and expanded under Trump’s current nonconsecutive second term.
Amazon has previously avoided involvement in high-profile political standoffs over tech ownership, but this bid appears to signal a strategic move to claim space in short-form video and social commerce, two areas where it has lagged behind TikTok and Meta. No valuation for the bid has been disclosed, and the clock is ticking.
Unless ByteDance complies with the new mandate or sells its U.S. TikTok assets to an approved American buyer, the app could be pulled from app stores nationwide by the weekend. Whether Amazon’s last-ditch play is a serious acquisition effort or a symbolic entry into the conversation remains to be seen.
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