Andreessen Horowitz now front runner to help buy out Chinese-owned TikTok – media reports
Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz is in talks to invest in TikTok, the frontrunners in a Trump-led deal to buy out the Chinese-owned video app before an April 5th divest deadline.
Image by Mike Blake | Reuters
US venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is in discussions to invest in TikTok as part of an effort led by President Donald Trump to gain control of the short-video app from its Chinese owners, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.
Silicon Valley Trump supporter and Andreessen Horowitz's co-founder, Marc Andreessen, is in talks to add new outside investment that will buy out TikTok's Chinese investors, as part of a bid led by Oracle and other American investors to carve it out of its parent company ByteDance, FT said.
The offer has recently emerged as the frontrunner ahead of an April 5th deadline, FT said, citing multiple people familiar with the matter.
Trump will consider a final proposal for TikTok on Wednesday, with the plans including potential investors such as Blackstone and Oracle, CBS News reported on Tuesday.
The meeting at the Oval Office will involve officials, including Vice President JD Vance and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, CBS said.
TikTok and Andreessen Horowitz did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
Trump on Saturday said a deal with ByteDance to sell TikTok, used by 170 million Americans, would be struck before the deadline.
Private equity firm Blackstone is discussing joining ByteDance's existing non-Chinese shareholders, led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, in contributing fresh capital to bid for TikTok's US business, Reuters had exclusively reported last week.
The talks on the future of TikTok are coalescing around a plan for the biggest non-Chinese investors in ByteDance to raise their stakes and acquire the short-video app's US operations, Reuters reported last month.
Trump said last month that his administration was in touch with four different groups about a prospective TikTok deal, without identifying them.
In the closely watched sale of TikTok, the White House is playing the role of an investment bank, with Vice President Vance running the auction.