By Haleluya Hadero and Christopher Rugaber | Related Press
WASHINGTON — Perplexity AI has offered a brand new proposal to TikTok’s father or mother firm that might permit the U.S. authorities to come clean with 50% of a brand new entity that merges Perplexity with TikTok’s U.S. enterprise, based on an individual aware of the matter.
The proposal, submitted final week, is a revision of a previous plan the synthetic intelligence startup had offered to TikTok’s father or mother ByteDance on Jan. 18, a day earlier than the legislation that bans TikTok went into impact.
The primary proposal, which ByteDance hasn’t responded to, sought to create a brand new construction that might merge San Francisco-based Perplexity with TikTok’s U.S. enterprise and embrace investments from different buyers.
The brand new proposal would permit the U.S. authorities to come clean with half of that new construction as soon as it makes an preliminary public providing of a minimum of $300 billion, stated the particular person, who was not licensed to talk about the proposal. The particular person stated Perplexity’s proposal was revised primarily based off of suggestions from the Trump administration.
If the plan is profitable, the shares owned by the federal government wouldn’t have voting energy, the particular person stated. The federal government additionally wouldn’t get a seat on the brand new firm’s board.
ByteDance and TikTok didn’t instantly responded to a request for remark.
Underneath the plan, ByteDance wouldn’t must fully lower ties with TikTok, a positive final result for its buyers. But it surely must permit a “full U.S. board control,” the particular person stated.
Underneath the proposal, the China-based tech firm would contribute TikTok’s U.S. enterprise with out the proprietary algorithm that fuels what customers see on the app, based on a doc seen by the Related Press.
“But the technology needs to be disconnected from China,” he added. “It needs to be disconnected from ByteDance. There’s absolutely no way that China would ever let us have something like that in China.”
The Perplexity proposal comes as a number of buyers are expressing curiosity in TikTok. President Donald Trump stated late Saturday that he expects a deal can be made in as quickly as 30 days.
On a flight from Las Vegas to Miami on Air Drive One, Trump additionally stated he hadn’t mentioned a take care of Larry Ellison, CEO of software program maker Oracle, regardless of a report that Oracle, together with exterior buyers, was contemplating taking up TikTok’s world operation.
“Numerous people are talking to me. Very substantial people,” Trump stated. “We have a lot of interest in it, and the United States will be a big beneficiary. … I’d only do it if the United States benefits.”
Underneath a bipartisan legislation handed final yr, TikTok was to be banned in the US by Jan. 19 if it didn’t lower ties with ByteDance. The Supreme Courtroom upheld the legislation, however Trump then issued an government order to halt enforcement of the legislation for 75 days.
Trump, on Air Drive One, famous that Ellison lives “right down the road” from his Mar-a-Lago property, however added, “I never spoke to Larry about TikTok. I’ve spoken to many people about TikTok and there’s great interest in TikTok.”
TikTok briefly shut down within the U.S. every week in the past, however went again on-line after Trump stated he would postpone the ban. TikTok CEO Shou Chew attended Trump’s inauguration Jan. 20, together with another tech leaders who’ve been forging friendlier ties with the brand new administration.
Congress voted to ban TikTok within the U.S. out of concern that TikTok’s possession construction represented a safety danger. The Biden administration argued in court docket for months that it was an excessive amount of of a danger to permit a Chinese language firm to regulate the algorithm that fuels what individuals see on the app. Officers additionally raised considerations about person knowledge collected on the platform.
Nonetheless, to this point, the U.S. hasn’t supplied public proof of TikTok handing person knowledge to Chinese language authorities or permitting them to tinker with its algorithm.
Hadero reported from South Bend, Indiana.
Initially Printed: January 26, 2025 at 12:42 PM PST
