Why Mr Beast Is TikTok CEO In The USA In 2025 is looking to buy TikTok as part of a group of investors, as a 75-day time limit ticks down for the social media company to find a non-Chinese owner or risk being permanently banned.
Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned,” MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, posted on X on January 13th. But while his tone was joking, Donaldson—the single most popular YouTuber and the third-most popular TikToker.
It went dark on Saturday night as a nationwide ban was looming but was back online about 12 hours later, after President Donald Trump announced he would sign an executive order to delay the ban by 75 days.
A range of possible new owners for TikTok in the U.S.—including MrBeast, Elon Musk, and Oracle founder Larry Ellison—have emerged as a federal law banning TikTok in the country went into effect this Sunday, Jan. 19, after Chinese parent company ByteDance failed to divest its stake in the popular video app.
MrBeast, the YouTube impresario whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has agreed to be a strategic partner with an investor group led by Employer.com founder Jesse Tinsley that has offered to buy TikTok. A rep for Donaldson told Variety, “Several potential buyers are having ongoing discussions with Jimmy, but he has no exclusive agreements with any of them.”
MrBeast’s interest in TikTok started as a joke. “Okay fine, I’ll buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned,” he posted Jan. 13 on X. One day later, it seemed like the gag had become real: “Unironically, I’ve had so many billionaires reach out to me.
