Is Mr Beast buying TikTok? Who is he and what we know so far

Jimmy Donaldson, popularly known as MrBeast, a Youtuber and one of the richest content creators online, has joined the race of potential buyers for the social media platform TikTok backed by ByteDance, a Chinese internet company.

MrBeast has held discussions with several groups interested in buying TikTok before a potential ban in the US, Bloomberg reported citing a spokesperson.

“Several interested buyers are having ongoing discussions with Jimmy, but he has no exclusive agreements with any of them,” Matthew Hiltzik, the spokesperson for Donaldson told Bloomberg. He added that the role of MrBeast will be more operational than financial.

Mr Beast post on TikTok

On January 14, MrBeast posted on X saying that he would, “buy TikTok so it doesn’t get banned.”

He later added “Unironically I’ve had so many billionaires reach out to me since I tweeted this, let’s see if we can pull this off.”

Further, he was mentioned in reports related to an investor group looking to buy TikTok’s US operations backed by Recruiter.com Ventures founder and CEO Jesse Tinsley, reported AP.

However, MrBeast spokesperson Matthew Hiltzik said that the popular Youtuber has not joined any bids officially.

“Several buyers are holding ongoing discussions with Jimmy,” Hiltzik told AP. “He has no exclusive agreements with any of them," he added.

Who is MrBeast?

MrBeast has more than 346 million subscribers on YouTube and typically posts videos on elaborate challenges, making him one of highest paid content creators in the world.

There is no clarity over Donaldson's involvement in the agreement as well as the total offer amount.

With the new development, Donaldson joins the list of several potential buyers for TikTok, which has two months to find a buyer to operate in the US or face a potential ban due to national security concerns. The platform was briefly banned for nearly a day on January 19.

However, it is unclear if ByteDance will sell TikTok. Several buyers have publically expressed interest in buying the social media platform, while some names have been proposed by US President Donald Trump, who must ultimately approve of any sale.

Billionaire Frank McCourt has publicly expressed his interest in buying TikTok, whereas US President Donald Trump has said he’d be open sell the platform to SpaceX, Tesla Inc boss Elon Musk, or Oracle Corp. co-founder Larry Ellison.