MrBeast, the YouTube star and highest-earning creator on the internet, has officially joined a bid to buy TikTok’s US operations. The 26-year-old ha

YouTube star MrBeast joins bid to buy TikTok in US

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2025-01-22 11:00:10

MrBeast, the YouTube star and highest-earning creator on the internet, has officially joined a bid to buy TikTok’s US operations.

The 26-year-old has teamed up with the tech entrepreneur Jesse Tinsley, the founder of the online HR company employer.com, to make an all-cash offer for the social video app’s American unit. The approach was announced as Donald Trump said he was open to the US tech billionaires Elon Musk and Larry Ellison buying TikTok in the US.

MrBeast – whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson – has floated his interest in acquiring TikTok in a number of social media posts, writing on X on 13 January: “I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned.” In a subsequent TikTok post Donaldson said he had been talking to a “bunch of billionaires” about a bid.

The US law firm Paul Hastings announced the Donaldson bid in a statement on Tuesday. It said Tinsley was leading an investor group comprising “institutional investors and high-net worth individuals” but Donaldson was the only publicly named member of the group.